{"id":82149,"date":"2025-01-30T11:30:58","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T17:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/rick-pitino-demands-kentucky-fans-applaud-john-calipari-with-respect-and-admiration-in-return-to-rupp-arena\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T11:30:58","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T17:30:58","slug":"rick-pitino-demands-kentucky-fans-applaud-john-calipari-with-respect-and-admiration-in-return-to-rupp-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/rick-pitino-demands-kentucky-fans-applaud-john-calipari-with-respect-and-admiration-in-return-to-rupp-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Pitino demands Kentucky fans applaud John Calipari with \u2018respect and admiration\u2019 in return to Rupp Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the return of John Calipari<\/a> to Kentucky<\/strong><\/a>, another former head coach of the Wildcats has weighed in on what reception that he\u2019s deserving of in Rupp Arena on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Rick Pitino<\/a> posted a video on Twitter<\/a> on Thursday to share his take on how the Big Blue Nation should respond when Calipari retakes the court in Lexington. He hopes to see the fanbase remember the best times of his tenure at UK and, as such, welcome him with a standing ovation ahead of Arkansas<\/strong><\/a> vs. No. 12 Kentucky.<\/p>\n

\n\n

pic.twitter.com\/jBLHZ6wAPz<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) January 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t steer you wrong with Mark Pope<\/a> when I sent out that last video and I certainly won\u2019t steer you wrong with this video,\u201d Pitino began.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is different. And, as you all know, I\u2019m not best friends with John Calipari. I respect him, certainly. But it was a mutual thing. The fans wanted a change. John read the tea leaves. He needed a change. And he really didn\u2019t want to leave. But what did he do for you? He brought the best talent in the history of the game, of any university in America, to Lexington. He also won a national championship. He also \u2013 his style of play was extremely entertaining,\u201d said Pitino. \u201cHe\u2019s coming back on Saturday and I want all of you to show the great class that you have \u2013 23,000-plus people giving him a huge standing ovation. Show him what respect and admiration is all about. I know you have the class. I\u2019ve always believed in you. Do it once again.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, Pitino compared it to other past coaches coming back to their former programs, including his own return to the bluegrass as the head coach of Louisville on December 29th, 2001<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cToughest day of my coaching career at Louisville was when I had to walk into Rupp Arena. Tried not to show it but, when I went home, the reception? It tore me up apart because I loved that place so much,\u201d said Pitino. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting because I was speaking to Ed Cooley just recently about Providence and he said he almost was brought to tears because of the bad feelings that he got going back there.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report will be updated further<\/em><\/p>\n

The post Rick Pitino demands Kentucky fans applaud John Calipari with \u2018respect and admiration\u2019 in return to Rupp Arena<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the return of John Calipari to Kentucky, another former head coach of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}