John Calipari reveals expectation for return game vs. Kentucky
Yesterday at 04:13 PM
John Calipari and the Arkansas basketball team have a big one this weekend as they be hitting the road to take on #12 Kentucky. Calipari was obviously the head coach of the Wildcats last year and had been the head coach since 2009. He surprisingly made the decision to leave for Arkansas during the offseason, and Kentucky hired Mark Pope, who played for the Wildcats during his college days. Pope now has Kentucky surging, and Calipari and the Razorbacks are struggling.
Calipari has been in this business for a long time, and he knows that he’s not going to be getting a warm welcome when he returns to Kentucky this weekend.
“We're gonna have three players that played there,” John Calipari said, according to an article from On3. “My guess is they're gonna get booed. My guess is I'm gonna get booed … But that's all part of it. I mean, shoot, you get booed. I've done this so long. I tell you I got bazooka holes in my body. So when you shoot arrows, it doesn't even hit skin, it just goes through one of those bazooka holes.”
A lot of Calipari’s career was spent coaching the Kentucky basketball team. He won a national championship there. It’s not going to be easy to face that type of reaction from the fans.
“It'll be interesting. I can't say I'm looking forward to it,” Calipari continued. “I'm looking forward to coaching, but to walk in and you know, the vibe I don't know how I'm gonna take it to be honest with you. I mean that was a special time in my life. In Ellen's life and 15 years we gave. 15.”
To make things even more difficult, Kentucky is playing very good basketball right now. The Wildcats are 15-5 overall and 4-3 in the loaded SEC. The Arkansas basketball team is a different story. The Razorbacks are in 15th place in the SEC as they are 12-8 overall and 1-6 in conference play. Not good.
“They're playing good,” Calipari said of Kentucky. “We've got our hands full and let's see what happens. They're a good team. Mark [Pope] is doing a good job with them. So, we've just got to keep going. Keep fighting. Keep figuring this out. What does this team look like? What do we have to play like?”
Arkansas needs to find something that helps them turn things around, and a win on the road against a team like Kentucky could be exactly what they need.
Kentucky and Arkansas will tip at 9:00 ET on Saturday night from Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky, and the game will be airing on ESPN. The Wildcats should end up being heavy favorites in this one.
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