Kentucky Trying So Hard to Show Up Arkansas

Latest attempt continues desperate look of team unable to have NCAA Tournament success

Former Kentucky basketball player and new head coach Mark Pope was animated during his announcement. / Sam Upshaw Jr./Courier Journal / USA

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Kentucky hasn't looked this uncomfortable in basketball since Roy Kramer brought in Nolan Richardson's Arkansas basketball team and massive traveling Hogs' fan base to counter the lonely Wildcats as a second power in the SEC in the early 90s.

Of course, Kentucky puffed its chest and promptly got steam-rolled the next few years by the Razorbacks on the court in the seasons running up to and through the 1994 national champion team and the 1995 runner-up. The Hogs were immediately recognized as the dominant power and their fans became the dominant fan base.

Fast forward to this decade where Kentucky fans sat helpless as Arkansas made a pair of runs to the Elite 8 and three Sweet 16s while knocking off No. 1 teams left and right because the Wildcats were too busy making teams like St. Peter's famous or missing the tournament completely.

Kentucky got a little sensitive. Once Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek allowed Hall of Fame coach John Calipari to talk himself into leaving Lexington for slightly less money, the pain emanating from their fans' backsides became too much to bear.

As commits and players began jumping into the exits like extras in a 1990s House of Pain music video, Big Blue Nation needed something, anything to cling to so they could pretend Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Auburn didn't spend the 2020s leaving Kentucky in the dust.

So, after seeing Arkansas pack out a full half of Bud Walton Arena plus the floor an hour after most people get off work on a rainy Wednesday afternoon on 10 1/2 hours' notice, the Wildcats knew they had to save face somehow. So, they went about doing the best they could to set up a braggable moment.

At 7 p.m. April 12, word began popping up that at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, Kentucky would host the Mark Pope introductory press conference. So, with nearly 48 hours notice, no job to sprint from in the middle of rush hour, and plenty of time for fans from more than 40 minutes away to arrive, the Wildcats packed Rupp Arena and as Kentcky did its best to hang its hat.

Taking an out of context cheap shot at Arkansas was too much to resist. A win of some sort had to be gained out of a week of frustration that saw Kentucky fans wanting to fire the athletics director for hiring the very coach they’ve were gathering to see introduced.

The Kentucky crowd at Mark Pope’s introductory press conference.

The Arkansas crowd at John Calipari’s press conference.

Kentucky basketball is different. pic.twitter.com/ju8kmWcP9P

— Tristan Pharis (@TristanUda) April 14, 2024

The gentleman posting on behalf of the Wildcats is right. Kentucky is different.

Kentucky has one NCAA Tournament win this decade.
Arkansas has eight.
Kentucky is the king maker of lower seeds this decade.
Arkansas hasn't lost to a lower seed all decade.
Kentucky needed four times as much clock to father roughly twice as many fans.
Arkansas knew fans would turn out in the most inconvenient of circumstances.

All the Wildcats proved by trying to show up Arkansas with no context is how desperate they've looked all week.

It's OK though. Kentucky has been through a rough time, so they deserve a bit of grace.

Everyone should back off and let them have this. It's only respite they get before Maryland Eastern Shore or Stonehill becomes the next Cinderella to knock them out of the first round next year, no matter how petty it looks for a supposed basketball king.

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