LEXINGTON, Ky. — Many of the same fans who were in their seats well before tipoff of Arkansas vs Kentucky also got an early start on their trip home Saturday night.
In what had been described as the toughest ticket in Kentucky basketball history, the Razorbacks silenced the amped-up crowd by controlling the entire second half and pulling off an 89-79 upset over the No. 12 Wildcats in John Calipari’s highly anticipated return to his former school.
Even though it was his 235th career win inside Rupp Arena, the Hall of Fame coach admitted to getting a bit confused at times — which is understandable considering it was his first from the opposing bench.
“I looked up a couple of times and I thought we were losing because I kept looking at Kentucky instead of Arkansas,” Calipari said. “I told them I did that and Adou (Thiero) said, ‘Coach, I did the same thing.’ It was 15 years here, you know.”
That decade and a half, during which Calipari led the Wildcats to the 2012 national title and three more Final Fours, is what made the matchup arguably the biggest of the college basketball season despite Arkansas’ struggles.
Based on the environment, you would have had no idea that the Razorbacks were in next-to-last place in the SEC.
More than 15 minutes before tipoff, not an empty seat was in sight and a large portion of the crowd was on its feet, craning their necks in hopes of getting a glimpse of the man they had cheered from 2009 until his departure last April.
When Calipari finally emerged from the tunnel, he did receive some applause from the home fans — but they were easily drowned out by a chorus of boos. Unfazed by the 30-plus cameras following his every move, he walked to the Arkansas bench and stood there, gazing across the court from a new angle.
After a few moments of self-reflection, Calipari turned and began shaking hands and giving hugs. While a Tyson Foods-clad John Tyson was among them, many with whom he interacted donned Kentucky blue. The niceties, though, didn’t last long.
The 21,266 fans in the building were living and dying with every shot, especially early, and the Wildcats could not miss. They made their first six shots and first four 3-pointers, the last of which put them up 18-12 and prompted a Calipari timeout at the 14:23 mark.
That was Kentucky’s largest lead of the night.
Even though the building was waiting to explode, the deafening roar that followed each of the Wildcats’ buckets never crescendoed because Arkansas always had an answer. It even took a one-point lead, 46-45, into halftime.
The opening minutes of the second half ultimately proved to be the difference in the game. Arkansas opened it on 12-2 run — with their trio of Kentucky transfers scoring all of their points — and the Wildcats never got the margin closer than six the rest of the way.
“Truthfully, it was maybe just poor adjustments on my part,” Kentucky basketball coach Mark Pope said. “Sometimes you make an adjustment that looks great schematically, but somehow it’s an energy stealer from your team.”
The nerves inside the area were palpable and only grew as the clock wound down until, with a couple minutes remaining, fans began streaming toward the exits.
Calipari, the legendary coach they loved but wanted gone, had dialed up one of his classic back-against-the-wall wins they’d grown accustomed to over the previous 15 seasons. After all, he’s now 5-1 straight up as an underdog in Rupp Arena.
“We needed to win a game so it didn’t matter who it was against,” Calipari said. “(That was) the only emotion I had… I was going play by play trying to drag us over the finish line.”
That’s something he’s now done just twice against a conference foe, as Arkansas improved to 13-8 overall and 2-6 in SEC play. The NCAA Tournament is still a long shot at this point, but Calipari at least has another marquee win on his resume alongside the Michigan win at Madison Square Garden in December.
Whether he’ll ever admit it or not, this one had to be at least a little bit sweeter.
“Nobody wants to come back and lose, so getting that dub, we had to do that for (him),” Thiero said. “He’s always had our backs, so we felt like tonight we really had his.”
Offensive Explosion
The Razorbacks had John Calipari’s back by finally doing what he said would eventually happen: making shots. In fact, they made shots at a higher clip than they had in seven previous SEC games — by a wide margin.
Entering the day ranked dead last in the conference in both field goal percentage (36.8%) and three-point percentage (24.8%), Arkansas ended up going 32 of 58 (55.2%) from the floor and 13 of 25 (52.0%) from beyond the arc.
Prior to Saturday, its best percentages against conference foes were 44.4% (at Missouri) and 45.0% (at LSU), respectively. The 52.0% from deep was the Razorbacks’ best of the season regardless of opponent, topping the 47.8% they shot at Miami (Fla.).
With more made shots, Arkansas also dished out 17 assists — four more than it had in any other SEC game this season.
The result was an 89-point explosion in which the Razorbacks put together their two highest-scoring halves of conference play in the same game. They had averaged just 64.3 points in their first seven SEC games, which was next-to-last in the league.
Kentucky Trio Shines
Most of the attention was on John Calipari, but Saturday night was also a homecoming of sorts for Adou Thiero, D.J. Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic, all three of whom began their collegiate careers in Lexington before following their coach to Fayetteville.
That fact certainly wasn’t lost on the Kentucky students. They showered Thiero and Ivisic with boos when they walked out to the court together more than an hour and a half before tip, and then were even louder when Wagner joined his teammates about 10 minutes later.
The trio of transfers got the last laugh, though. Not only were they on the winning side, but they each played a critical role in making it happen, combining for 52 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists and 4 steals.
Thiero aggressively attacked the rim, particularly in the second half, and poured in a team-high 21 points on just 10 shot attempts. He made five of those, including a 3, but did a lot of his damage at the charity stripe, making 10 of 12 free throws. The versatile forward also led the team in rebounds (8) and steals (3).
Through 21 games, Thiero is now averaging 16.4 points and 6.3 rebounds. The last three Razorbacks to average 16 and 6 for an entire season were Daniel Gafford (2018-19), Bobby Portis (2014-15) and Corliss Williamson (1994-95), according to HogStats. Portis and Williamson ended up winning the SEC Player of the Year award.
It looked like Wagner might lay an egg in his return, missing all five of his shots in a scoreless first half, but he flipped a switch after halftime. Playing all 20 minutes, the former five-star recruit had some tough finishes at the basket and knocked down a pair of 3s, going 7 of 8 from the floor en route to 17-point outburst to complement his season-high eight assists.
“Really just my teammates, my coaches just telling me to stay confident,” Wagner said about what changed at halftime. “Play like you have amnesia, you just got to forget about the last shot.”
Defensively, Ivisic got pushed around in the paint, but more than made up for those deficiencies with stellar play on the other end of the floor. He went 4 of 7 from beyond the arc, marking his most made 3s since his 6-of-7 showing against Troy in the third game of the season, and finished with 14 points.
The Johnell Davis Game
It only took 21 games, but Johnell Davis finally looked like the top-ranked transfer Arkansas thought it was getting when he committed.
The FAU transfer turned in easily his best performance of the year Saturday. He scored 18 points, matching the season high he set against Oklahoma in his last game, but he did it far more efficiently. After going just 5 of 16 from the floor and 3 of 11 from beyond the arc a week earlier, Davis was 7 of 14 overall and made half of his six 3-point attempts.
Remarkably, it was just the fourth time in 19 appearances — and just second in his last 16 — that he took more shots inside the arc than outside. Early on, Davis displayed a more aggressive mindset against Kentucky than he’d shown in other games.
That’s probably because he frequently had the ball in his hands, which also showed up in his season-high-matching 6 assists. It was a role much more similar to how he played for the Owls and necessitated by Boogie Fland’s injury.
“This was his best game for sure, but I think he’s grown into it,” Mark Pope said. “He’s getting a chance now to be the ball-dominant guy that he’s used to being. … I expect him to be more and more dangerous as the season goes on.”
Davis shares those ball handling duties with D.J. Wagner and they combined for 14 assists with only 3 turnovers. Across the first two games without Fland, the duo had 10 total assists to 7 turnovers.
Up Next for Arkansas Basketball
The Razorbacks are on the road again for their next game, which will be the renewal of an old Southwest Conference rivalry.
With a 31-point beatdown of LSU in Baton Rouge, Texas has now won four of its last six games since losing its first three SEC games. That has improved the Longhorns to 15-7 overall and 4-5 in conference play.
Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT Wednesday and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
Other Arkansas Basketball Tidbits
- Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari is now 235-26 all-time inside Rupp Arena, with all but two of those games coming as Kentucky’s head coach. In addition to winning with the Razorbacks on Saturday, he also lost a game while at UMass in 1991.
- Jaxson Robinson, who played at Arkansas in 2021-22, reached double figures for the 16th time in 21 games this season. He finished with 20 points on 6 of 9 shooting, including 4 of 6 from beyond the arc. However, the sharpshooter was an uncharacteristic 4 of 8 from the charity stripe, where he was been a career 83.7% shooter.
- The Wildcats were led Amari Williams, who posted a double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds. The big man was one shy of his career high in scoring set while at Drexel in 2023.
- Former Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith was in attendance and had the honor of being the ‘Y’ in the Kentucky spell-out during the under-16 media timeout of the second half. He received a loud ovation, which isn’t surprising considering he led the Wildcats to the 1998 national title.
- A Kentucky fan won $10,000 by making a half court shot during another timeout in the second half. He got three attempts and drilled the final one.
- With the win, the Razorbacks jumped up 12 spots in the all-important NET rankings, going from No. 59 to No. 47. They now have a pair of Quadrant 1 wins, with the other being Michigan. On the flip side, Kentucky dropped nine spots from No. 10 to No. 19.
- In a classy gesture by Kentucky, a seat in the media section was reserved in honor of Bob Holt, the legendary Arkansas Democrat-Gazette sportswriter who passed away in December.

Arkansas center Zvonimir Ivisic and Niko Martinovic, an all-state punter for Bentonville High School (courtesy of Chris Martinovic)

The Martinovics and Ivisic represent Croatia in Lexington, Ky.
Arkansas vs Kentucky Highlights
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