John Calipari will be back in Rupp Arena next season. (Vicky Graff Photo)
New Kentucky coach Mark Pope has made it clear he would like for former UK coach Rick Pitino to bring St. John’s into Rupp Arena to play during the 2024-25 season.
Pitino has not been back to Rupp Arena since Dec. 26, 2015, when he appeared to “flip off” UK fans after Kentucky beat his Louisville Cardinals 75-73.
But while the series with St. John’s has not been finalized, there definitely will be one former UK coach returning to Rupp Arena.
Arkansas and coach John Calipari will be one of the Southeastern Conference teams that UK hosts during the 2024-25 season. That cannot be a surprise to anyone knowing what a national event this will be without Calipari returning to Lexington where he won a national title in 2012 and almost led UK to a perfect season in 2015.
What kind of reception will Calipari get? My guess is that Pitino might get a warmer reception as the wounds/disputes with Calipari will still be too fresh potentially for many UK fans to welcome him back this quickly with open arms.
No date or TV information was released by the SEC for the UK-Arkansas matchup but a safe guess would be a Saturday in mid or late February in the No. 1 TV time slot the SEC has for next season.
Kentucky will play all 15 SEC opponents at least once next season and will play Alabama, Tennessee and Vanderbilt in home-and-home series. The Cats will have nine home games and nine away games.
Alabama figures to be the SEC favorite while Tennessee, a traditional UK rival, has been one of the league’s best teams the last five years. Alabama went to the Final Four last season despite losing 117-95 in Rupp Arena in February. Kentucky split games with Tennessee last season with each team winning on the road.
Kentucky’s SEC home schedule also includes Auburn, Florida, LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M. The other road games will be Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
Texas and Oklahoma are joining the SEC for the 2024-25 season and UK will play both on the road.
3 Responses
Just like Pitino sticking it in UK’s eye by going to UL, the fraud has done the same thing by staying in the SEC.
He is a disgusting slimeball.
UK fans should make his every future appearance inside Rupp absolute misery.
The Fraud will probably call-in sick for that game.
I’ll take UK all day in this game.
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