Kentucky let one slide vs. a desperate Arkansas team: "It definitely meant more to them"

Coming into tonight, most thought Arkansas would be the team to come out tight, the Razorbacks buckling under the pressure of John Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena. It ended up being quite the opposite. Kentucky — whose roster only has one player with connections to Calipari — was the team that wilted under the spotlight while Arkansas played fast and free, hitting 13 three-pointers, the second most they’ve made all season and by far the most they’ve hit in SEC play, en route to the 89-79 upset.

Kentucky was shorthanded — and Lamont Butler was desperately missed tonight — but there’s no denying that Arkansas played like they simply wanted the win more, and they got it.

“We needed to win a game,” Calipari said. “It didn’t matter who it was against.”

Adou Thiero, DJ Wagner, and Zvonimir Ivisic all played big roles in the victory over their former school. Thiero finished with 21 points and 8 rebounds. He told reporters that he got most of the emotions over his homecoming out at the shootaround at Rupp Arena Friday night. When the ball was tipped today in a wild atmosphere at Rupp Arena, he was locked in.

“You know, we had a decent bit of Ws here while we were here, so it feels good to walk out of here with another one,” Thiero said.

Wagner scored all 17 of his points in the second half, going 7-8 from the floor after shooting 0-5 in the first. After a rough start (in an absolutely wild Rupp Arena), he settled in and punished Kentucky by going to the rim.

“I felt a lot of emotions,” Wagner said. “That’s the thing, just walking back in the gym for the first time, being on the other side, on a different team, shooting around as a different team, so it kind of felt like a little weird. Once that was over, it was a little bit easier to lock in and stuff like that and just playing today. The atmosphere was just great. I feel like everybody loves to play in atmospheres like that, so it was fun for me, going out there and just seeing how crazy it was, how crazy everybody was going, it was fun.”

Even Big Z had his moments, hitting four threes — including a dagger with 6:27 left to put Arkansas up nine. Ansley Almonor admitted afterward the former Kentucky guys simply played with more urgency and passion.

“You definitely sensed it a little bit,” Almonor said. “A little chatter obviously. It definitely meant more to them. You could tell on the court.“

Subscribe to the KSR YouTube Channel for press conferences, interviews, original shows, fan features, and exclusive content.

Pope: “This is not a coronation; this is a journey.”

Kentucky’s loss to Arkansas is its worst of the year, both in terms of morale and resume. The Cats have taken befuddling losses before and bounced back beautifully, most recently losing at Vanderbilt and a few days later, beating No. 8 Tennessee in Knoxville. Mark Pope said he and his team are distraught over the loss, but they know they can’t afford to linger in it. Kentucky goes back on the road to play No. 24 Ole Miss in Oxford on Tuesday night.

“Listen, my guys were really hurting in the locker room,” Pope said. “They know what this building means, they know what this jersey means. They see everything and hear everything and they know what matters…We talked after the game just very briefly about this game and about our job, right, how it is very much, like we have to move to the next game, there can’t be carry over.”

“We are a really good team. We are dealing with some roster changes right now that are complicated. We are a really good team. We have guys that are really really competing. We’ve got some guys that are growing and actually in the process because they need to step up and be better for us and have guys in the process doing that and we are all doing it all while playing great teams and having two or three successes and having some setbacks and it’s awesome.”

“You know, this is a journey for us. This is not a coronation, this is a journey. And we’re going to earn our way through it and there’s going to be some pain on the way and certainly, for my guys tonight it was super painful.”