Despite the piddling conference record that Arkansas brought to the court vs Kentucky, a sold-out Rupp Arena crackled with the energy of a blockbuster heavyweight fight Saturday night.
For sure, plenty of jabs were thrown throughout. A few Kentucky basketball fans, seizing an opportunity to kick John Calipari while he was seemingly down given the Hogs’ 1-6 SEC record at the time, wore shirts featuring Calipari’s face drawn with a clown nose.
Calipari, upon entering Rupp Arena for his first game coaching there since he took over the Arkansas basketball job, met a cascade of applause and boos coming down from the rafters. He arched his left eyebrow as if to ask the Kentucky faithful: “Is that all you got for me?”
After the final seconds of the Hogs’ resounding 89-79 upset over Kentucky ticked off the clock, the Arkansas basketball marketing department got into the action. They riffed off a photo of Houston Rockets guard Reed Sheppard, a one-and-done Wildcat last season, who earlier in the night had rocked a Razorback shirt with Kentucky basketball shorts:
This, too, was an attempt to be funny.
Sheppard told reporters that he wanted Kentucky to win, but decided to wear an Arkansas shirt – in part – to be funny. “Three of my [former] teammates play for Arkansas, too,” the native Kentuckian said, referencing Adou Thiero, DJ Wagner and Zvonimir Ivisic. He added that he talks to all of them once a week and “I stay in touch with the coaches [and staff], too.”
Around now is where all the laughs and attempts at humor came to a screeching halt in certain parts of Big Blue Nation.
Many Kentucky basketball fans failed to grasp that Sheppard was simply taking a page out of the book of former Wildcat PJ Washington, who showed up at an Arkansas basketball practice a few months ago wearing a Hogs shirt to show his support of Calipari. While John Calipari was in Lexington, he referred to his program as “Cal U.” – just as he does now at Arkansas. Seeing former players rep his current team’s colors alongside Kentucky blue is simply a reflection of that “Cal U.” philosophy come to life. Many Wildcat fans loved the winning that Calipari’s tact brought them in the 2010s, but they can’t deal with the flip side of that philosophy as it now manifests in cardinal red.
Some fans took Sheppard’s attire especially personally. “This actually made me sad,” Twitter user “JP” posted. “My 13-year-old son worships Reed Sheppard, but by 8 a.m., he’d removed everything Reed-related from his room. Supporting his coach is one thing, but giving another fan base ammo to mock the one that’s loved him? That won’t be forgotten anytime soon.#BBN.”
Saturday night will forever live in Kentucky basketball infamy because it wasn’t just Reed Sheppard ruining the poster arrangements on teenage boys’ rooms. Including Sheppard, an entire starting five’s worth of former Kentucky basketball players stirred the pot by saying things that rubbed Big Blue Nation fans all kinds wrong:
Davion Mintz

Here’s just a choice selection of fans’ replies to this post on Twitter:
“What experience do you have with Calipari winning? I don’t remember many…”
“When Cal leaves Arkansas, you aren’t welcome anywhere. UK won’t take you back and Arkansas fans don’t even know who you are.”
“Your own people will slander your name; these sad blue nation folks are really down bad.”
Ashton Hagans

Replies
“The one you quit during a season?“
“Man F*CK your coach (until he retires)”
“Bro, it’s basketball. Cal is the man. Love him. But he is the enemy coach tonight trying to beat KENTUCKY at Rupp. We boo all opposing teams and coaches.”
Jacob Toppin

Replies
“Not in front of the fans that supported you. Classless behavior”
“You absolutely can, Arkansas is a great fit for you.”
“You definitely can and the majority of BBN understands it. Us in KY live and breathe these teams [with] no other sports teams to call our own. This is likely where the hate is coming from but ‘this too shall pass”
TyTy Washington

Kentucky basketball fans definitely didn’t take too kindly to this Bankroll Fresh reference to coming into an enemy’s territory and taking over.
“Shouldn’t you be going 18 minutes without a made basket somewhere?”
“TyTy will never come back from this. They really about to feel how it is when you’re on the other side of bbn. Damn what a shame. Fans had nothing to do with this shit and this how our old players do us.”
“Sorry Kentucky fans act like trash when u are honest! Cal U loves You! The hill is always home TYTY”
As you can imagine, the cumulative effect of all this pro-Arkansas sentiment coming from Kentucky Wildcats on the night of the program’s worst loss of the year was just about enough to send some of Big Blue Nation to the psych ward.
Consider this headline on the Kentucky basketball message forum Cats Illustrated: “Reed, TyTy, Toppin, Hagans, Mintz Should Never Be Allowed Back Here”
This gem of a thread has already generated 97 replies, including plenty of concurring such as will1996, who posted: “Those guys, and probably others I’ve missed, should never be allowed to set foot on campus again. Tyty especially. His punk ass burned his BBN bridge with a flamethrower tonight.”
The idea of banning these former Wildcats from Rupp Arena/the University of Kentucky campus is delusional and idiotic. There’s no way that would fly with anybody within the organization. Reed Sheppard, whose father Jeff Sheppard played with Mark Pope on the ’96 national title team, is a legacy Wildcat and obviously could keep helping the program a lot more than wearing one Razorback shirt would hurt it.
Most of these “Unwelcome Five” are NBA players who nobody in their right mind would want to slam the doors on. Pope will still need current NBA players to vouch for him if he wants to close the talent gap with teams like Arkansas, Auburn and Alabama.
Kentucky Media’s False Narrative Framing
The delusion in the aftermath of Arkansas vs Kentucky was running rampant enough to apparently affect a media member as well.
On top of making digital content for Kentucky Sports Radio and IHeartMedia, Mario Maitland is a bit of Renaissance man who hosts a podcast show that strives to mix “storytelling, inspiration, education and entertainment.”
Well, Maitland sure proves that he loves storytelling with the headline to the below clip he posted on Sunday. It’s some top-notch fiction.
He writes that “Arkansas players took shots at Kentucky fans” while posting video that directly contradicts that statement. As you can see below, it’s pro-Wildcat rubes who are peppering Razorback coaches and players with a stream of insults:
Considering how annoying these guys are, it’s a wonder more Razorbacks than Ivisic, Billy Richmond and Karter Knox didn’t fire back a little.
Regardless, it’s clear that the instigators in this case are the fans.
Indulging in delusional thinking is nothing new to a fanbase trying to grapple with such a devastating loss. Many in Big Blue Nation think they would have won had their starting point guard, Lamont Butler, not missed the game with an injury. The problem is Arkansas played with such intensity and fire that a healthy Butler wouldn’t have been enough to stem the tide. Some Kentucky fans will insist otherwise, however, given how much in vogue false narratives and hypotheticals are in Lexington these days.
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Crystal Balling BBN Having Another Conniption Fit
If you thought things got heated from Sheppard donning Razorback red, just wait till you see what happens when the same happens with Anthony Davis, the former Kentucky star turned NBA superstar who was just traded to the Dallas Mavericks.
Dallas, or course, is only a five hour-drive away from Fayetteville.
And it’s also the current home of Razorback great Daniel Gafford as well as PJ Washington, who pulled a Reed Sheppard of his own a few months ago when he showed up at an Arkansas basketball practice. Read our latest here:
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