Kentucky Flourishes Under Mark Pope While John Calipari Fumbles in Arkansas | Deadspin.com

It’s funny to remember just how down Big Blue Nation was when Danny Hurley, Billy Donovan and Scott Drew all rejected Kentucky’s overtures to become its next head basketball coach.Kentucky Flourishes Under Mark Pope While John Calipari Fumbles in Arkansas | Deadspin.com

Fans wanted the biggest of big-name hires after John Calipari stepped down in April. The man they wound up with instead, Kentucky alum Mark Pope, had nowhere close to the track record of those three former national champions.Kentucky Flourishes Under Mark Pope While John Calipari Fumbles in Arkansas | Deadspin.com

But to Kentucky fans’ credit, they found hope in Pope. They’re certainly waking up with a smile Sunday, as it’s become clear they’re winning the breakup with Calipari.Kentucky Flourishes Under Mark Pope While John Calipari Fumbles in Arkansas | Deadspin.com

No. 10 Kentucky hosted No. 6 Florida on Saturday in a matchup that not only kicked off Southeastern Conference play but also lifted the lid on a titanic day of college hoops in general thanks to its 11 a.m. tip. Florida had a surprisingly strong start to the year and came to Lexington 13-0.

Pope, Koby Brea and company met the challenge head-on and beat Florida 106-100 with some of its best offense of the season. Brea went 7-for-9 from three, six players scored at least 14 points, and the Wildcats’ ball movement was spectacular, with 25 assists to just six turnovers in a fast-paced game.

The very next TV timeslot saw Calipari take No. 23 Arkansas to No. 1 Tennessee and basically get laughed out of the building, 76-52.

People were quick to do the math. Arkansas didn’t muster half of what Kentucky scored in its game.

“My disappointment wasn’t in coming to Tennessee and losing a game,” Calipari said postgame. “It was they kind of manhandled us. … We got to do some soul-searching, because this league, what they play like, everybody plays like.”

This game was so lopsided that the Volunteers grabbed more offensive rebounds (24) than they allowed in defensive rebounds (20), and the Razorbacks committed six more turnovers than assists.

And like the Tim Robinson hot dog meme, Calipari is trying to find the guy who did this.

Perhaps the most damning thing to come out of his postgame presser was that Calipari had Arkansas skip its shootaround, which he came to regret.

“The one thing I would do different in this game, and I all night tossed and turned,” Calipari said, performatively tapping his fist on the table, “(was) we didn’t do a shootaround today. And I just felt, our body (clock) is noon, pretty early. If I had to do it over again, we would’ve (done the) shootaround. Because we had three or four guys kind of no-show.”

Is there any wonder why Boogie Fland went 5-for-15? Why was Johnell Davis 0-for-4 across 25 minutes?

Kentucky fans are undoubtedly familiar with the pattern. Calipari’s final four years at the school resulted in a 9-16 record and missed tournament, first-round losses to Saint Peter’s and Oakland, and one second-round appearance. The knock on him late in his career is that he’s been a talent collector and not a great coach, and that was peeking through again Saturday.

There’s disagreement in Big Blue Nation over whether to keep track of their ex and troll him for every loss or simply to move on. I don’t take a side there either way. But it’s got to be comforting for them to have their arrow pointing up thanks to Pope, while Calipari’s arrow points God knows where.

Both Calipari and Pope had precious little time to build a new roster in April and May following their job changes. Both had to rely heavily on transfers—that’s what the job is in the 2020s. But Pope has coached his guys to three wins over top-10 teams, and Calipari, a Hall of Famer, can’t decide whether to hold a shootaround before facing the No. 1 team. 

Feb. 1, 9 p.m. ET. Calipari returns to Kentucky wearing Razorback red. You have to imagine one team will be in a pretty lofty spot in the SEC standings. The other may have its tournament aspirations on life support, the way they looked Saturday.