Calipari and Arkansas beat Kentucky with "makers, not shooters"

DrewFranklinKSR

davis — Feb 1, 2025; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks guard Johnell Davis (1) shoots the ball during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Of all the nights for Arkansas to start hitting shots, the Razorbacks picked the Kentucky game to get hot from outside. Arkansas entered Saturday night’s game shooting 32.5% from 3 on the season, the 248th-best percentage in the country. Against Kentucky, John Calipari’s former bricklayers connected on 13 of 25 attempts against the Wildcats for better than 50% on shots that Kentucky wanted Arkansas to take.

“I thought they shot them really well,” Mark Pope said after the game. “I thought they did a nice job. They posed a bunch of difficult problems for us and they did a good job getting downhill, getting open. They made ball screen coverage with pick-and-pop complicated sometimes. I thought (Johnell Davis) did a nice job being really aggressive in two-man game coming off floppies, and they really did a terrific job making shots tonight.”

Feb 1, 2025; Lexington, Kentucky, USA; Arkansas Razorbacks guard Johnell Davis (1) shoots the ball during the first half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Davis hit three 3-pointers for nine of his 18 points, a season-high for the former Florida Atlantic star. DJ Wagner hit two of four, with both makes coming after halftime. Wagner’s 17 points were his season-high. Former UK commit Karter Knox added another two 3s to the scoreboard. However, it was Zvonimir Ivisic, Big Z, who inflicted the most pain in Rupp Arena. The former Wildcat drained four 3s on his old floor, including the second-half dagger that killed Kentucky’s momentum and stretched the Hogs’ lead to nine.

“We played well,” Calipari told a room full of familiar faces in Arkansas’ postgame press conference. “We did. It’s not, you know, made a lot of shots and, but we’ve lost a lot of games because we were 0-for, like guys, you gotta make some, so it’s nice to know they can play this way.”

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He added, “We’re fortunate. I mean, we had to shoot 70%, 55, and 52 to win the game. If we don’t do that, we lose the game.”

Remember the old Cal line, “I need makers, not shooters”? We heard it often in Lexington when his teams shot poorly. He had makers, not shooters, against the Wildcats on Saturday in the best shooting performance of the season for the Arkansas.