College basketball rankings: John Calipari makes return to Rupp Arena as Arkansas battles Kentucky

I’ve been doing this long enough to know most fans don’t care much for people like me telling them how to feel or act on topics close to them that people like me are only watching from a distance. That’s my experience, at least. It’s rarely well-received. It’s almost always wasted words.

So, Kentucky fans, if you’re reading this, let me make myself clear: You should, by all means, treat John Calipari however you want when he returns to a sold-out Rupp Arena late Saturday for the first time since leaving UK after 15 years. Boo him or cheer him. Praise him or cuss him. Stay silent or be loud.

It’s totally up to you!

I’m not going to use this space to tell Big Blue Nation what to do. But what I am going to do, because I’ve been asked about it a bunch this week, is explain how I think I’d act, and how I think I’d want my wife and children to act, if we were lifelong Kentucky fans inside Rupp Arena when Calipari is introduced to a crowd that once adored him but eventually begged him to leave for Arkansas last April after the Wildcats lost to a mid-major in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in a three-year span.

What would we do?

We’d greet him with kindness. We’d applaud.

And, yes, I realize this probably puts me in a minority among sports fans and how they feel about things like this. I get it. That’s not lost on me and why I don’t have some column locked and loaded and ready to publish the moment I hear even one UK fan say something mean. Seriously, yell mean stuff as loud and as long as you can, if you want. I will not be offended because this is just sports and I’m not here to change the world or save Coach Cal when the world is filled with bigger issues and Coach Cal will be fine, regardless.

It’s just that, all week — on a radio show here or a CBS Sports HQ segment there — I kept getting asked how I think Kentucky fans will greet Calipari this weekend and how I’d greet Calipari this weekend if I were a lifelong Kentucky fan. My answer to the first question, at this point, is that I don’t really know. And, either way, again, I’m happy to leave that up to the Kentucky fans in the building, and I promise not to think or talk or write about it too much after the fact almost no matter what.

But the second question?

My answer to the second question, the question about how I’d greet Calipari when he’s introduced if I were a lifelong Kentucky fan, is that I’d applaud him in a way to show appreciation for 15 (mostly) great years. Hand to heart, it would never even occur to me to boo or yell bad things because, practically speaking, if I were a lifelong Kentucky fan, I’d look at this as a divorce I asked for — and also one that I’m winning.

Again, UK fans, you can boo if you want.

But, like, why?

I’m genuinely curious.

One person on social media said it’s simply because Calipari is the opposing coach, and this a competition, so he must be booed — but that’s obviously silly. Clint Sargent was the opposing coach in a competition at Rupp Arena earlier this season. I bet most Kentucky fans didn’t even notice, or even know that, until they just read it here. So, if you’re a UK fan who boos Calipari when he’s introduced, it’s not simply because he’s the opposing coach, nor is it simply because he’s the opposing coach of an SEC rival, or, at least, that’s not an explanation I’ll accept unless you can find me video of Mike Anderson catching absolute hell at Rupp in February 2019.

If you’re a UK fan who boos Calipari, you’ll be doing it for some other reason than those reasons. And, again, it’s fine. Boo away, if you want.

But, like, why?

I’ve yet to see anybody offer a great rationalization without more or less just claiming this is sports and in sports if you’re not my friend, you’re my enemy, and you’re especially my enemy if you used to be my best friend but aren’t anymore.

I mean, that’s fine, I guess.

But if I were a lifelong Kentucky fan, a fan of a team, by the way, sitting at No. 8 in Saturday morning’s CBS Sports Top 25 and 1 daily college basketball rankings, and a team coached by the man I’d vote for National Coach of the Year right now, Mark Pope, if I were a fan of that UK program, especially while Calipari’s Razorbacks are 1-6 in the SEC and likely going nowhere, I’d choose to look at Calipari as a man who spent 15 of his 65 years on his this planet — nearly a quarter of his life! — coaching my favorite team to four Final Fours, the 2012 national title and way more good memories than bad.

Did it fall off at the end? Undeniably, it fell off at the end.

So, if you’re a Kentucky fan reading this, please know that I totally get why you were ready to move on. I, too, thought a divorce was best for all involved. But, if you’re a Kentucky fan reading this, please don’t ever forget that, broadly speaking, this is what you wanted and what you told Calipari to do. You told him to leave. Calipari, I promise you, didn’t want to leave Kentucky, and it probably broke his heart when he realized it was best for him and his family to do so. Calipari, I promise you, always envisioned winning another national championship at Kentucky, retiring at Kentucky and popping in and out of games at Kentucky while being met by standing ovations every time.

So this must be weird for him.

It should be weird for everybody.

And, if you take sports out of it and just think about it from a human perspective, it’s really kind of sad. Yes, John Calipari has more money than most of us could ever realistically dream of having, and his life will probably be fine no matter how Kentucky fans greet him in his first return to Rupp since leaving. But, that acknowledged, if you’re a Kentucky fan reading this, just know that you have the power to make a good memory for a person who gave you everything he had for 15 years and created a lot of the best sports moments you’ve ever experienced. Or you can make a bad memory for that exact same person.

Again, do whatever you want.

It’s up to you.

But, I’m pretty sure, I know what I’d do if I were you.

Top 25 And 1 rankings