Rick Pitino hopes Kentucky’s followers take it straightforward on John Calipari in his return to Lexington on Saturday evening.
Pitino posted a video on X on Thursday on the matter and defined his reasoning behind it Friday as St. John’s ready to host Windfall Saturday afternoon on the Backyard.
“I think some fans will boo him, but what I was hoping for was that a majority will not boo him,” mentioned Pitino, who coached at Kentucky for eight seasons from 1989-97. “I know why they booed me — because I was coaching at Louisville. That was a different scenario. John didn’t want to leave Kentucky. Both parties knew it was time for him to move to a different job, and he did. He didn’t want to leave. … When I went in there, it was one of the lowest points of my Louisville tenure. It was 23,000 people booing me.”
Calipari will return to Kentucky as the top coach at Arkansas.
In 15 seasons, he led the Wildcats to a nationwide championship and 4 Ultimate 4 berths.
They’re doing properly with out him beneath new coach and former Pitino participant Mark Pope, ranked twelfth within the nation.
Calipari, in the meantime, might not even attain the NCAA Match in his first season because the Razorbacks’ coach.
Arkansas is next-to-last within the loaded SEC and has dropped six of its final seven video games.
Brady Dunlap’s hopes of returning this season are over.
After trying to rehab his torn stomach muscle, the sophomore sharpshooter will endure surgical procedure Thursday.
He can start understanding a month later and begin full basketball actions two months after that.
“Obviously, it’s my dream to play on a top-15 team,” Dunlap mentioned. “It’s kind of why I came here in the first place, so it’s pretty disappointing. But at the same time, I just have to look at it as positive from my personal perspective. I get another year in college with the medical redshirt. College is such an old game now, so I have to take it as a positive for myself and just cheer my guys on.”
CHECK OUT THE LATEST BIG EAST STANDINGS AND ST. JOHN’S STATS
Dunlap mentioned he’s hopeful to be again subsequent season at St. John’s.
“It’s really up to Coach Pitino at this point,” he mentioned.
Dunlap, a former four-star recruit from Newhall, Calif., additionally missed time with a torn UCL in his left thumb that required surgical procedure and initially sidelined him in mid-December.
