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Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff Writer
In 2009, John Calipari arrived in Lexington as a hero. On Feb. 1, he might return as a villain.
Calipari will make his return to Rupp Arena on Feb. 1 when Arkansas faces Kentucky, per the SEC men’s basketball 2024-25 schedule that was released on Tuesday.
Calipari led Kentucky to the national title in 2012 and spent more than a decade with the Wildcats before his time in Lexington ended in April following a tumultuous stretch that included a pair of first-round exits in the NCAA tournament over the past three years. This will be the only regular-season matchup between Calipari’s Arkansas squad and Mark Pope’s Wildcats in the 2024-25 season.
Both coaches regrouped quickly in their new homes. Former five-star recruit D.J. Wagner followed Calipari from Kentucky to Arkansas, which also added former Florida Atlantic star Johnell Davis. Pope also built his first Kentucky team with high-level transfers, including former San Diego State star Lamont Butler.
This will be one of the biggest games in college basketball this upcoming season. And, arguably, the most energized. When former Kentucky head coach Rick Pitino, then the head coach at Louisville, made another trip to Rupp Arena in 2015, he was accused of giving the crowd the middle finger — an accusation he denied after the game.
Calipari will likely be met with a similar hostility in his first game back after back-to-back losses to Saint Peter’s and Oakland in the opening rounds of two of the past three NCAA tournaments left a sour taste for Kentucky fans.
There are other notable games on the schedule, too. Texas and Oklahoma will kick off their first seasons in the SEC with road games on Jan. 4 against Texas A&M and Alabama, respectively.
The Crimson Tide, backed by Wooden Award contender Mark Sears, will play critical league games on the road at Kentucky on Jan. 18 and at Auburn on March 8, which could have an impact on both the team’s SEC finish and the postseason seed for an Alabama team with national title aspirations.
But Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena will be the headliner for the SEC slate.
“Kentucky is the bluest of blue,” Calipari said after he was introduced in Fayetteville in April. “There’s only a few schools like that, and I hate to tell you … Arkansas is one of them.”