Kentucky upsets Arkansas (and John Calipari) in a game plagued by technical fouls

Ben Roberts, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jan 31, 2026

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — An eventful evening inside Bud Walton Arena ended with an unexpected result.

In a game plagued by on-court altercations and technical fouls, Kentucky pulled off an 85-77 victory over the No. 15-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday, dealing John Calipari an upset loss in his first game coaching against the Wildcats on his new home court.

With the game tied at 63 and a little more than eight minutes remaining, Kentucky went on a 7-0 run and never trailed again, though tensions remained high — and Arkansas stayed within striking distance — for the rest of the way.

Coach Mark Pope’s Kentucky team improved to 15-7 on the season and 6-3 in the SEC. The Razorbacks, who began this week as the SEC’s top-ranked team, dropped to 16-6 and 6-3 in the SEC.

Arkansas was a 6.5-point favorite at tipoff. The Hogs upset UK in Rupp Arena last season in Calipari’s return to Lexington, where he was the head coach of the Cats from 2009 to 2024.

Otega Oweh led the Cats with 24 points Saturday. Collin Chandler scored 13 points. Malachi Moreno had 11 points, and Denzel Aberdeen added 10 for Kentucky.

Star freshman Darius Acuff Jr. led the Hogs with 22 points.

A pivotal sequence in the game began with Kentucky up 51-46 and 14:49 remaining, when Brandon Garrison stood over Acuff after a foul and ended up with a technical as a result of the altercation.

Later in the same possession, Mouhamed Dioubate blocked a driving layup attempt by Acuff and yelled into the courtside camera as the ball went out of bounds. Dioubate was given a technical for that reaction. Acuff made both free throws and — after a 10-second call went against Kentucky — lead referee Doug Shows called a technical on Pope, who was still irate over the first two calls. Acuff made two more free throws.

Four seconds later, Billy Richmond III threw down a dunk to give Arkansas a 52-51 lead. It was the Razorbacks’ first lead of the game, and Bud Walton Arena — after three technical foul calls went against UK in 38 seconds — was the loudest it had been all night, by a wide margin.

Oweh took the lead back for the Cats on the other end, but momentum had shifted to Arkansas by that point, and the teams battled back and forth the rest of the way.

There were a total of six technical fouls and one flagrant called during the game, but no one was ejected.

The first half brought something unexpected from the Wildcats.

In each of its first eight games away from Rupp Arena this season, Kentucky had trailed by double digits before halftime. UK was never behind in the first half of this one.

Oweh scored on Kentucky’s first possession, and — after an Arkansas bucket on the other end — Aberdeen hit a 3-pointer to give the Cats a 5-2 lead with 18:48 remaining in the half. Those two baskets kickstarted an opening flurry that saw Kentucky make 10 of its first 11 shot attempts. And that start came just four days after UK missed its first seven shots from the field and went 3 for 20 in the opening minutes of an 80-55 loss at Vanderbilt.

The Cats built a 13-point lead at one point in the first half Saturday, but Arkansas didn’t go away. Calipari’s team — down 26-13 at the second TV timeout — went 8 for 12 from the field over a six-minute stretch from there, but the Hogs couldn’t equal UK before halftime.

Kentucky’s lead was never lower than three points in the final 17:30 of the first half.

Tensions flared with 1:31 left in the period, with players from both sides coming together underneath the Arkansas basket. Pope and Calipari ended up on the court — as did assistant coaches from both teams — in an attempt to defuse the situation.

Following a video review, Shows announced that technical fouls had been called on Oweh and Richmond, a former UK recruit. Those technicals offset each other, and there were no additional penalties from the incident.

A short time later, Kentucky took a 42-35 lead into halftime.

Acuff, who is a potential lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft, missed his first five shots from the field and was 2 for 10 on field goals and 0 for 3 on 3-pointers in the first half.

UK played its seventh consecutive game without projected NBA lottery pick Jayden Quaintance, who remains out with swelling in his surgically repaired knee. UK is also missing starting point guard Jaland Lowe — out for the season with a shoulder injury — and key wing Kam Williams, who had surgery for a broken foot last week.

Pope said Thursday there was an “outside, outside, outside chance” that Williams would be able to rejoin the Wildcats this season, and there is no timetable for Quaintance’s return.

Kentucky returns to the court Wednesday night with a matchup against Oklahoma in Rupp Arena.