John Calipari won’t be the first former Kentucky basketball coach to return to Rupp Arena

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On Saturday night, John Calipari will walk into Rupp Arena to coach a basketball game.

For 15 years, it was simply a routine, a comfortably familiar stroll inside the building where the longtime Kentucky coach would lead his team in front of 20,000 blue-and-white clad members of Big Blue Nation.

This time, though, it will be anything but normal.

REQUIRED READING: John Calipari’s legacy in Lexington: Former UK basketball coach set for Rupp Arena return

Calipari will be taking the court this weekend not as the Wildcats’ coach, but Arkansas’, trading in blue for the Razorbacks’ cardinal hue.

It’s an arrangement that would have seemed far-fetched this time last year, when Kentucky was 15-5 and on its way to a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament behind a team with two of the top eight picks in the 2024 NBA Draft. But after yet another shockingly early exit from March Madness and the discontent that riled up among Kentucky fans, Calipari jumped at the opportunity for a fresh start elsewhere in the SEC.

During his tenure, Calipari was the face of Kentucky basketball. He not only won games, made Final Fours and captured the Wildcats’ eighth national championship, but he molded the program in his own image and helped change the sport as a whole by putting together winning teams built around top recruits who stayed at the school just one year before heading off to hard-earned NBA riches.

Though it comes while his first Arkansas team is struggling, with a 12-8 overall record and a 1-6 mark in SEC play, his return to Rupp Arena Saturday should make for a captivating, potentially surreal scene.

As unusual as the circumstances are, it won’t be the first time a former Kentucky coach has come back to Lexington to face off against the Wildcats.

Here’s what you need to know about Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena and the historical precedent for it:

REQUIRED READING: Vote for how ex-Kentucky coach John Calipari should be honored in his return to Rupp Arena

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/john-calipari-wont-first-former-111019538.html

Author : The Courier Journal

Publish date : 2025-02-01 11:10:00

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