Fearing letdown vs. Arkansas, John Calipari changed Kentucky's pregame routine

Kentucky was flying high coming into today’s game at Rupp, having beaten Alabama by 22 points and Mississippi State on a buzzer-beater on the road. With two games at home against two of the league’s weaker teams, Arkansas and Vanderbilt, before the season finale at No. 4 Tennessee, John Calipari was worried his young team was about to fall into a trap.

“This game coming up, it is a really dangerous game because they had us beat down there, Arkansas,” Calipari said during his weekly radio show on Wednesday night. “I mean we were dead to rights and with three or four minutes to go it was a tie game and we ended up winning. This is a trap game.”

Calipari was so concerned about his team being in the right frame of mind that he made some changes to Kentucky’s pregame routine. Last night, the Cats stayed in a hotel instead of their rooms at the Wildcat Lodge, and despite the early afternoon tipoff, went through a morning shootaround.

“I knew Muss would have them ready,” Calipari said after Kentucky’s 111-102 win over Arkansas. “I was really worried about this game. I had them stay at the hotel last night; I haven’t done that for a year. We came here and stayed in the hotel and had a meal and you know what we did this morning? We shot around for a 1:30 p.m. game. I don’t ever do that. Breakfast here and then let’s play this game.

“Why? Because I knew this was going to be this way. I knew it. They didn’t, but I knew this was going to be a really hard game. Do you know why? They got a really good coach and they got really talented players that can break you down and go get baskets. What did they do? They broke us down and went and got baskets. We just happen to score more than them today.”

Thank goodness for that. Kentucky’s 111 points mark the Cats’ sixth 100-point game this season, a John Calipari-era record and the most for the program since the 1995-96 team hit the century mark nine times. Seven Cats finished in double figures, six of them freshmen. On the other side of the ball, there are still plenty of concerns. Arkansas’ 102 points are the most the Razorbacks have scored all season. Tonight is the first time Kentucky has won giving up that many points since a 121-105 victory over LSU on Feb. 21, 1970.

“There are going to be games, folks, that we’re just going to have to outscore them,” John Calipari said on Kentucky’s postgame radio show. “I mean, are you watching these games? We may just say, you know, what, they’re going to get 100, let’s get 105.”

Whatever works, even if that means staying at a hotel before the Vanderbilt game next week.