The brutal 180-degree turn from last season is painful. Arkansas not playing well is even harder to accept. The season is taking a very bad turn.
This is John Calipari's worst nightmare. A year ago, his Arkansas team was struggling as it limped into Rupp Arena in Lexington. The Razorbacks had nothing to lose. They had to go for it and see what might happen against favored Kentucky. They played a desperate, passionate, urgent road game and won. They turned their season completely around and never looked back, becoming a legitimately good team and going all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, very nearly the Elite Eight.
This time, the roles were reversed. Kentucky was playing under the burden of having fallen short of expectations. Arkansas was having the better year and was playing at home, where it had turned Bud Walton Arena into a fortress road teams had not yet conquered in the 2025-2026 season. All signs pointed to Arkansas winning, especially with Kentucky being shorthanded. Remember: UK did not have guard Jaland Lowe, who is widely considered to be an important part of a full-strength Wildcat team.
Here's more perspective on the Cats: Kentucky had won five straight games earlier in the month of January, but three of those wins were against non-NCAA Tournament teams: Mississippi State, LSU, and Ole Miss. Texas is a bubble team. The one really good win of the five was at Tennessee. Then Kentucky got absolutely crushed by Vanderbilt, losing by 25 in Memorial Gym. This was not an especially good team which came to Fayetteville on Saturday.
Arkansas, which had not lost a home game all season long and had played brilliantly at home in wins over Tennessee and Vanderbilt, figured to have the upper hand. However, that required UA playing with the energy and toughness it had displayed at home all season.
That did not happen. It was generally agreed by players and coaches afterward that Kentucky was the more desperate team. How did Arkansas allow that to become reality? The Hogs should have been sky-high for this game, but Kentucky ascended early, punching the Razorbacks in the mouth and grabbing a very quick 14-5 lead. It's true that Arkansas took some punches and then landed a right cross with a 22-11 surge early in the second half for a 57-53 lead, but Kentucky was able to regain control and outplay the Hogs down the stretch.
The only damning statistic you need to know beyond the final score -- UK 85, UA 77 -- is that Big Blue shot 54 percent. There's simply no way a visiting team in Bud Walton, especially a shorthanded one, should shoot that well that consistently. Arkansas couldn't get stops when it needed to, and now the season feels very different in the worst possible way.
There's a lot more to be said about this game, but for now, Arkansas has lost the benefit of the doubt in the SEC title race. The door remained open for the Hogs, but they have refused to step through the portal and take their opportunity. As February begins, the season is trending in the wrong direction, and John Calipari once again has to figure out how to engineer a midseason reversal.