How will BBN welcome John Calipari? More warmly than he’d like

In one of the college basketball season’s most anticipated moments, Saturday marks a WWE-like emotional occurrence. John Calipari, head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks, returns to Rupp Arena. For anyone living under a rock, Rupp Arena was Calipari’s home office for 15 seasons, through bust and boom of Kentucky’s basketball program.

Always something of a “love him or hate him” proposition, Calipari took Kentucky to the Final Four 4 times in 6 seasons (his first 6 seasons, by the way), winning the school’s 8th NCAA championship in 2012. He raised millions for humanitarian causes, recruited whole rosters of NBA talent, kissed babies, made speeches and generally made himself a legend.

But a funny thing happened to one of college hoops’ brilliant pairings with the original 24/7/365 culture and the guy who never met a microphone he didn’t like. Sometime around a shocking upset loss to Wisconsin in the 2015 Final Four, Calipari’s mojo disappeared. Slowly at first, but soon faster, the guy with a million quips started missing press conferences and losing double-digit numbers of games (3 times in his final 4 UK seasons). Kentucky also won exactly 1 SEC Tournament game and 1 NCAA Tournament game in those last 4 seasons. Those McDonald’s All-Americans started getting mysterious injuries or playing more like guys who liked to eat at McDonald’s. Kentucky wasn’t happy.

Enter Arkansas, ready to give Calipari the opportunity to prove all his critics wrong, eager to burnish their own SEC credentials, and ready to bring about the spectacle of Calipari calling “Woo Pig Sooey.”

Kentucky fans aren’t noted for complacency or moderation. Only once before has an active former Kentucky coach returned so immediately as a foe — Rick Pitino, who admittedly returned as the boss of the Louisville Cardinals, a rivalry with only mildly more fervor than a 17th century Protestant/Catholic tussle. But even Pitino had another job and a few years between his departure of the place he now warmly reveres as Camelot (probably in part because of his very public disdain for Calipari) and his return as Benedict Pitino.

How will Kentucky fans receive Calipari on Saturday night? Frankly, much more warmly than he’d like.

In Tuesday night’s victory over Tennessee, No. 12 Kentucky and new coach Mark Pope earned the team’s 6th win of the year over an AP top-15 foe, which ties a Kentucky all-time high. Incidentally, the Kentucky coach Pope tied was Tubby Smith, not Calipari. On the other hand, Arkansas … well, it’s not so good.

Arkansas and Calipari are 1-6 in the SEC, next-to-last in the 16-team league. Less than a month before Kentucky’s win in Knoxville, Arkansas lost there by 24 points. Two weeks ago, Arkansas lost by 18 points to Missouri. Second-leading scorer Boogie Fland has suffered a hand injury and is apparently lost for the season. Arkansas is scoring 64.3 points per game in SEC play and is shooting 24.8% from 3-point range.

Little surprise, then, that Kentucky is favored by 11.5 points, per FanDuel Sportsbook.

So as Calipari prepares to return to Rupp Arena, much as he would love to be, he can’t claim to be the conquering hero. Looks like he’s more in line for an NIT bid than a deep NCAA Tournament run. For a coach who has always loved to push the envelope and wear the black hat, his resume would say that a dull beige might be more appropriate than Arkansas red. For a guy who loves to force critics to swallow their words, Calipari hasn’t done anything to change the narrative that all but ran him out of Lexington.

He looks like a coach who is doing a job because he doesn’t know what else to do. He looks old and tired and like the game of college basketball has passed him by. Booing Calipari? What’s the use? This season has pretty well already given him all the negativity he can handle.

If the shoe was on the other foot — if Arkansas was approaching the top 10 and Kentucky was in the bottom of the SEC, yes, the return would be epic. Calipari would look smug and comfortable, and Kentucky fans would boo the roof off Rupp Arena.

But the knife will be twisted much deeper with the kindly, mildly saddened reception he’ll probably get Saturday night. To get boos in Rupp Arena, Calipari would have to earn them. This season doesn’t seem to suggest that he’s relevant enough to do that.

Joe Cox

Joe Cox is a columnist for Saturday Down South. He has also written or assisted in writing five books, and his most recent, Almost Perfect (a study of baseball pitchers’ near-miss attempts at perfect games), is available on Amazon or at many local bookstores.