John Calipari greeted with chorus of boos in return to Kentucky

Even though John Calipari's divorce from Kentucky seemed inevitable, the school's fans still haven't forgiven him for jumping ship to Arkansas.

The Wildcats' former head coach made his long-awaited return to Rupp Arena as an opponent on Saturday, with few people expecting a warm reception. Rick Pitino, of all people, hoped Kentucky fans would recognize Calipari's contributions to the program, but it wasn't a surprise what happened next.

As Calipari walked onto the floor, Big Blue Nation hit him with a wave of boos.

And when Calipari was introduced as the head coach of the Razorbacks? Even louder boos.

Calipari coached Kentucky from 2009 until last season, earning a national championship, four Final Fours, six SEC tournament and regular season titles and a Naismith College Coach of the Year award. In the process, he changed both the program and the sport by constructing a one-and-done pipeline to the NBA that produced stars like Anthony Davis, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jamal Murray, De'Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyler Herro and Tyrese Maxey.

In total, Calipari produced three no. 1 overall picks, 25 lottery picks, 37 first-round picks and 50 NBA Draft picks in 15 years.

That tenure, however, progressively soured over the course of Calipari's last few years in Lexington, with only one NCAA Tournament win after 2019. It was widely speculated that the 2023-24 season could be his last with Kentucky, and he chose to not wait around to see if he would get the ax.

His first season with Arkansas has seen an amount of success similar to his later years in Kentucky. The Razorbacks entered Saturday with a 12-8 record and a 1-6 record in SEC play, while No. 12 Kentucky sat at 15-5 and 4-2.