Arkansas basketball head coach John Calipari had plenty of nice things to say about Mark Pope, his successor at Kentucky.

Kentucky needed a win in the worst way against its former coach and earned a 85-77 victory Saturday

Arkansas coach John Calipari talks about the job Mark Pope has done this season coaching Kentucky. In what has become somewhat of an annual tradition, we are here to discuss The Biggest Snub of the NBA’s All-Star Game.

On Saturday, Kentucky upset No. 15 Arkansas, downing the Razorbacks 85-77 in Bud Walton Arena. The game was personal between the two teams. It’s only the second time Arkansas head coach John Calipari has faced Kentucky since leaving the program following the 2023-24 season.

“I’ll tell you,” Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said on the Sooner Sports Network postgame show. “The last 72 hours, if people saw the gut punch we had there and to come back and try to prepare for this, I just feel for the guys. I feel for them to battle and everything and to be right there and not be able to get those stops down the stretch.”

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at [email protected] or follow him@jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Mark Pope brought his Kentucky Wildcats into Bud Walton Arena and beat John Calipari's Arkansas Razorbacks, snapping the Hogs' 17-game home win streak