Calipari's postgame comments on Joe B. Hall and the 1-3-1 Zone tribute

Saturday was an emotional day for Kentucky Basketball, both good and bad.

In Rupp Arena, the Wildcats demolished No. 22 Tennessee with a 28-point win to defend homecourt. The Vols hadn’t allowed 80 points all year until Kentucky scored 107 on 70 percent shooting for the game. The offense was flowing so well, there were still 12 minutes to go when Kentucky hit the 80-point mark on our nation’s second-ranked team in defensive efficiency. Needless to say, Rupp Arena was electric and the most energetic crowd all season. Attendance was announced at a season-best 20,278.

But the morning before the game, John Calipari announced the passing of former head coach Joe B. Hall, a Kentucky Basketball legend. Hall of course coached Kentucky to the 1978 national championship in the impossible role of following 41-year head coach Adolph Rupp. In his later years, Hall became a regular at games and closed-door practices as a passionate fan and a friend to Calipari. It had been a couple of years since Hall was around, but he and Calipari remained in touch until Hall’s final hours. Calipari visited him one last time, knowing what was likely ahead.

“When I want to see him, he was really lucid,” Calipari said in his postgame remarks Saturday afternoon. “He was struggling to speak, but he knew what I was saying. And so, you know, I knew it wasn’t going to be a month but I never thought it would be, you know.

“I got a call from his family last night and they told me, Mike told me, that it’s near. And then when I woke up this morning, I got another call that he had passed.”

1-3-1 Zone

Calipari paid tribute to his friend and mentor by starting Kentucky’s defense in a 1-3-1 zone, a Joe B. Hall favorite. However, the team had not done any 1-3-1 work to date and Calipari knew Tennessee was likely to take advantage.

“I was like, geez, I should have prepared,” Calipari admitted. “But do you prepare the 1-3-1 before something happens? I don’t like that karma.”

When the news of Hall’s passing came in after the team’s morning shootaround, Calipari told his team the plan to start the game.

“I waited and it was after the shootaround that we had this morning,” he said. “I was going to do it knowing they’d probably score a basket, but so what? On Senior Night we put in every senior. I don’t care how long they can play. That’s what we do. This was a celebration for Coach Hall, as was the rolled-up program which I will bring out to every game this year to finish it out.”

In addition to the 1-3-1 and the rolled-up program, a tribute video was played in Rupp Arena before the game.

“I loved the video,” said Calipari. “The greatest thing in all this was he knew what people thought and how much he was appreciated and beloved before he passed. He knew. Our fans have been so great to him.”

“He’s a friend and mentor”

More from John Calipari postgame comments regarding Joe B. Hall; he told reporters, “All I can tell you is he’s a mentor and a friend to me over my 13 years… To the very end, he smiled. He smiled. 93 good years. That’s all I can say.”