Former UK opponent defends Rupp Arena on TikTok: "I can still hear it in my dreams"

Rupp Arena isn’t perfect. We know this, BBN. Look no further than the current sit-or-stand debate to see that Rupp Arena has its flaws. Still, Rupp is one of the best venues in college basketball.

Solomon Callaghan, a redshirt freshman at Wright State, saw Rupp Arena when Wright State opened the 2024-25 season in Lexington. Callaghan played 18 minutes in a 103-62 loss to the Wildcats, so he knows the Rupp experience firsthand. He lived it last month.

Recently, Callaghan scrolled TikTok when he came across a video that listed the top arenas in college basketball without naming Rupp among the best. Having played a game at Rupp, Callaghan strongly disagreed with Kentucky’s omission from the list. So much so that he made his own TikTok in Rupp Arena’s defense.

“I saw this video and I’m not going to let this slide,” Callaghan says in his reply. “How are you not putting Rupp Arena top five?… Bro, when I tell you it was the craziest environment I’ve ever seen… It was the craziest environment, loudest. I’m talking Game 7, Cavs versus Warriors in 2016. It was rocking.”

Callaghan admitted that he and his teammates were rattled by Rupp’s theatrics in the pregame buildup, which may explain why the Raiders were never really in the game, a 41-point loss. He described the intimidating pregame scene, saying, “Lights come off, blue lights come down, they’re shooting off fireworks, bro. There’s fire in the gym. Literally, everybody was shook in the huddle. We didn’t know what to do.”

The crowd of nearly 20,000 fans at a season opener stunned him. The “We-are-U-K!” chants still ring in his head, too.

“I still have dreams about that, bro. I can still hear that in my dreams. It was the loudest environment.”

Callaghan explained why he came to Rupp’s defense at the end of the video, saying, “For the love of the game, for the love of college basketball, I just gotta say something because I saw that video and was, like, you’re talking way out of pocket here.”

On behalf of the rest of BBN, we here at KSR thank Callaghan for using his platform to stand up for Rupp Arena. Standing up gets unanimous approval from Kentucky fans in this case.

Watch Callaghan’s TikTok (solocal_) about Rupp Arena

@solocal_ ‘Unc you gotta let it go’ #fy#fyp#d1#arena#UK#greenscreenvideo #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Aura