Reflecting on an Unexpected Inflection Point in the Career of John Calipari

He was booed, then cheered. It’s a familiar phenomenon that has followed John Calipari throughout his career. This time the cheers were deafening. Five years ago elation filled the air at Bud Walton Arena as the crowd rejoiced John Calipari’s ejection. Now he is returning as the Hogs’ head coach. 

Every Kentucky fan had a different reaction when they heard the news of Coach Cal’s imminent departure. My mind immediately went back to January 2020.

Sitting next to my father in the upper deck of Bud Walton Arena, we could not hear each other talk as Calipari was thrown out of the game. Moments later they could hear us from the floor, screaming in jubilation along with a dozen other Kentucky fans. The tenth-ranked Wildcats turned Calipari’s ejection into a 17-2 run, powering past Arkansas for a 73-66 win. An unforgettable experience in person, years later it serves as an inflection point for John Calipari’s coaching career.

If you’ll notice, the noise was so loud that Immanuel Quickley covered his ears. It’s a clip Arkansas later used in hype videos at Bud Walton Arena.

Arkansas Fans Loathe Kentucky

You probably aren’t aware of the hate in the Bluegrass State, but you can feel the vitriol from Razorback fans in Fayetteville. It all started 39 years ago at the Final Four in Lexington. After initially missing on Lute Olson and Gene Bartow, Kentucky convinced Eddie Sutton to leave Arkansas and become the Wildcats’ next head coach.

The ill-will turned into a heated rivalry in the 90s. Arkansas abandoned the Southwest Conference for the SEC and brought 40 Minutes of Hell. Nolan Richardson’s teams played a physical brand of basketball, one that looked like a firefight when matched up against Rick Pitino’s pressing attack. A rivalry emerged, albeit a lopsided one.

Arkansas won its first two SEC meetings against Kentucky. Nolan Richardson only claimed four more wins over the Wildcats through the final ten years of his coaching tenure.

It was the glory days for Razorback basketball. They went to consecutive Final Fours and won a National Championship, but they couldn’t beat Kentucky when it mattered, losing to the Wildcats six times in the SEC Tournament, including two championship games.

The anger from those losses simmered for decades and only grew as Kentucky distanced itself from the Razorbacks. Arkansas tried to fight Kentucky to win the 2015 SEC Tournament Title. Their coaches trash-talked Malik Monk ahead of the 2017 title game. None of it worked.

“You know why we hated him, right? Because he was awesome and you guys are freaking Kentucky,” Bobby Bones said on KSR this morning. “… I hate Kentucky as a basketball team, but not because I hate the people individually, but because for years and years, you guys have pounded us.”

Finally, Razorback fans were ready to rejoice at the demise of John Calipari. Not even his ejection could give them the win they so desperately needed. Now, he’s one of them.

A Clear-Cut Second Half of the John Calipari Era

Rewind to the spring of 2020 and you’ll recall a much different climate around the Kentucky basketball program. The Wildcats were five years removed from a Final Four, but there was no panic around the BBN. Kentucky was a Luke Maye last-second shot and an Auburn overtime away from reaching two Final Fours in three years. The Cats were a Top 10 team that was hitting its stride en route to an SEC Regular Season Championship, led by Junior Nick Richards and SEC Player of the Year Immanuel Quickley.

Everything changed after that fateful 2020 season.

What’s exactly to blame? There are a myriad of reasons that make sense, but discovering the why isn’t the point of this exercise. The line of demarcation is clear.

Arkansas fans hated John Calipari because he went to their town and beat their team. That went by the wayside over the last four seasons — Kentucky had two combined wins in the Champions Classic, NCAA and SEC Tournament — and now Calipari is going to their town to be their head coach.

Calipari isn’t going anywhere

In 2008 I sat in my neighbor’s basement and celebrated every Memphis missed free throw until Mario Chalmers delivered an iconic NCAA Tournament moment that led to John Calipari’s demise. The disgust in my heart for John Calipari was instantly eradicated when he wore a blue tie at the Joe Craft Center and promised, “We’re going to run a program that you’ll be proud of.”

The Arkansas fans who once celebrated John Calipari’s demise will cheer for his success. The Kentucky fans who were once mesmerized by the smooth-talker will call for his head when he brings a different team to Rupp Arena. Like Rick Pitino, Calipari is the man in the arena who will continue to make fanatics of us all for years to come.