Kentucky basketball embarked on a new era in the 2024-25 season, moving from legendary coach John Calipari to Mark Pope, a former Wildcats player who was hired to replace Calipari after he was hired at Arkansas.
Calipari is now set to be the first Kentucky coach to face their old school at Rupp Arena after leaving for another job since Rick Pitino with Louisville in 2001.
The 65-year-old coach with six Final Four appearances in his career (including four at Kentucky) helped the Wildcats become one of the top NBA-producing programs in college basketball, with the Wildcats becoming a pipeline to the professional ranks. The Basketball Hall of Famer also won the 2012 NCAA Tournament national championship, finishing with a ridiculous 38-2 record on the season.
Calipari didn’t end his Kentucky tenure on a high note, however, as the No. 3-seeded Wildcats were upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Oakland, who won its first ever March Madness game in the matchup. The Wildcats didn’t fare much better in the two years prior, either, failing to make it past the first weekend in both the 2022 and 2023 NCAA tournaments (including a similarly demoralizing defeat to 15-seeded Saint Peter’s in 2022).
Calipari takes on his former program on Saturdaywhen the Razorbacks travel to Lexington to face Kentucky.
“You get booed. I’ve done this so long,” Calipari told reporters of his impending return to Rupp Arena. “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.”
