CINCINNATI — What a difference a year makes. Exactly one year ago tonight, Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats were upset on their home floor, at Rupp Arena, by John Calipari and the Arkansas Razorbacks. It was Coach Cal’s first game back at Rupp Arena since leaving Kentucky and Big Blue Nation in April of 2024. Despite the Razorbacks being just 1-6 in the SEC, and Kentucky being ranked No. 12 and feeling like they were about to take off on a run to the top of the SEC, it was Arkansas that met the moment and the emotions of that night at Rupp Arena. Mark Pope’s Wildcats, despite six wins against AP Top 15 teams coming into that night, just wasn’t ready to meet the moment themeslves.
Saturday night in Fayetteville, the script flipped. It was Pope and the Wildcats who went on the road against the No. 15 Razorbacks, just four days after getting humiliated at Vanderbilt, and looked like the team more ready to play. The Wildcats were the more physical team, the tougher team, and the overall better team in a game they needed to win to not only change the trajectory of their season, but also ease the growing tension and angst that were more than simmering in Big Blue Nation.
Calipari said after the game that Kentucky “out-toughed” Arkansas Saturday night, just four days after he said that Mark Pope was the right man to be the head coach of Kentucky. He’s right on both of those.
In a game that featured seven technical fouls, including three for the Wildcats in a span of just 38 seconds, and a high amount of emotion and physicality, Kentucky held its ground and rose to the occasion from the opening tip.
“I would like to clean up all three of those technicals. I’d like to have a tiny bit more discipline, but what I love about that stretch is the guys’ fight and determination,” Pope said after the game. “Even with the three techs happening back to back to back, I felt like it was coming from exactly the right place in our team, that we are searching for that core of fight and undaunted competitive spirit. It overflowed a tiny bit, but it felt right.”
Throughout the Summer, we kept hearing about how competitive this team was in practice, leading to near brawls, chipped teeth, and increased expectations. That’s why Kentucky fans were so excited heading into this season. There was a legitimate sense this team could win the program’s ninth national championship.
It hasn’t always been easy or pretty for this Wildcats team. They’ve gone through injuries, embarrassing blowout losses, opposing head coaches takikg shots at the makeup of their team. Yet, they’re 10-3 since getting embarrassed against Gonzaga in Nashville and 6-1 since an uncharacteristc 0-2 start in SEC play.
“We’re on a journey,” Pope said. “And it might not be the journey that anybody anticipated. But I love it. I tell you, I’ve never coached a team like this. To be dead and buried like we were, and then just keep saying, ‘You know what? Doesn’t matter. We’re coming back, man. We’re coming back.’”
Leading this Kentucky’s team comeback is Otega Oweh. Even in Kentucky’s 5-4 stumble out of the starting gates this season, he was far from the problem. Oweh has scored in double figures in every game this season. In SEC play, he has seven games with 20+ points and has increased his season scoring average by over two points per game.
Saturday night, he was ready to rock from Kentucky’s first possession. He got a defensive rebound off a missed three-pointer from Arkansas’s Trevon Brazille and went coast-to-coast for a layup to get Kentucky on the board first. It was a tone-setter for how his night, and Kentucky’s night would unfold.
Oweh led all scorers with 24 points on 9-12 shooting, while also adding eight rebounds and three assists in 36 minutes. It was his breakaway dunk, off a steal, in midway through the second half that tied the game at 59-59. Despite the score being tied two more times, Kentucky wouldn’t trail again.
“I just try and go out there and have a super-high motor,” Oweh said. “I feel like, if I do that, I help put the team in a good position to win.”
It’s not just that. Oweh has his entire supporting cast following his lead. Collin Chandler, who made clutch play after clutch play in January, scored 13 points and knocked down two three-pointers. His second three-pointer was a much-needed high-arching three-pointer that cut Kentucky’s deficit to 57-56 with less than 11 minutes remaining. Considering where Kentucky was in the game at the time Chandler made that three-pointer– down four and reeling from the barrage of technical fouls– it is worth wondering how the game would have unfolded had he not made the shot.
Malachi Moreno, whose buzzer-beater at LSU may have saved the season, held his own against a talented Arkansas frontcourt. He keeps getting better and better against these SEC front courts, and his offensive rebounding was once again a big part of this game. Moreno had five offensive rebounds of his seven total rebounds, while adding two blocks and 11 points, including 3-4 from the free-throw line.
Then, there was Trent Noah. A player who felt like a castoff not even two weeks ago had seven rebounds on the road at Arkansas. Think about that. Here’s a player who was barely making his way onto the floor in games, and then against the 15th-ranked team in the country, led by a head coach who, for some reason, didn’t recruit him when he was playing at Harlan County High School, plays 19 minutes and scores nine points, hits a three to keep Kentucky out in front by two possessions in the first half, goes 6-8 from the free-throw line, and finishes with a +8.
It makes it easier whenever — I mean, I have coaches that are always lifting me up, and my teammates are always lifting me up, and I get to compete with them in practice,” Noah said after the game. “But that’s kind of the beauty of basketball. There’s so many highs and lows, and you get to take those skills and apply them to your life. Because that’s how life goes. Life always isn’t how you want it to be. So you just gotta take the hand you’re dealt and make the best of it.”
Noah is an integral part of this team. He chose to wear No. 9 because that’s what thie team and this program is chasing; their ninth national title.
Is this team good enough to win a national championship? Time will tell. But considering where this program was in early December and early January, not to mention just this past Tuesday, the trajectory of the Wildcats’ season changed by winning at Arkansas.
Here’s a team that’s younger than last year’s team and played a harder non-conference schedule. Despite both of those elements, they have the same record through 22 games this year as they did last year. Last year, though, they were just 4-5 through the first half of SEC play. This year, they’re 6-3.
Despite being without three key players Saturday night, players who all may miss the remainder of the season, Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats met the moment. In doing so, hope has been restored in Lexington that despite not having Jaland Lowe, Jayden Quaintance, and Kam Williams, Mark Pope is going to get the most out of this team and, maybe, be able to run into a little luck that can take this team to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament… and maybe the first weekend of April.
“I think we have a great future this season, and I think we’re going to win a lot of games and have an epic run,” Pope said. “So maybe the story about this team is going to be even more important than what they’re doing right now. It’s pretty awesome.”
Amid all the rollercoaster swings of this season, Kentucky has still won a lot of games in the past two monhts. Repeat performances of Saturday night in Arkansas will lead to a lot more wins.
If anything, though, this team has proven they can embrace the moment. The Wildcats were in control from their first possession on Saturday against the No. 15 team in the country, a Razorbacks team that could be playing deep into March. If the Wildcats, themselves, play deepin into March, their win at Arkansas on the last day of January will be looked back on as the turning point of their season. They met the moment. There will be plenty more moments ahead on the journey to the Tourney.
