FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — John Calipari was in familiar territory Wednesday night. The only real change was the uniform.
Calipari’s No. 25 Arkansas team beat No. 6 Louisville 89-80, handling the Cardinals from the opening tip. Louisville didn’t lead once in the game. Calipari moved to 20-8 all-time against the Cards, with a majority of those wins coming when he coached Kentucky from 2009-2024.
With Calipari in just his second season in Fayetteville, he relied on a longtime Arkansas player to lead the way.
Trevon Brazile, in his fourth season with the Razorbacks, was the only player who stayed on the roster when Calipari took over for Eric Musselman ahead of the 2024-25 season. Brazile scored 21 points, including 17 in the first half, on 8 of 11 shooting. His emphatic alley-oop dunk with 2:27 left extinguished Louisville’s comeback attempt after the Cardinals had cut Arkansas’ lead from 20 to four.
“Coach Cal, he took control of the last four minutes,” Brazile said. “We didn’t finish the game the right way versus Duke. He took initiative.”
Arkansas led the Blue Devils with just six minutes left on Thanksgiving before Duke finished on a 19-7 run to win. Over the last seven minutes Wednesday, Arkansas outscored Louisville 17-15. Not a wide margin, but enough to avoid a collapse.
“We needed another good game like this to see where we’ve got to get better late in the game,” Calipari said. “They made a run and made us make our plays.”
Louisville (7-1) hadn’t lost before Wednesday and led all of Division I in scoring margin, beating opponents by an average of 33 points. They also entered second in the country in 3-pointers, averaging 13 a game.
The Cardinals made just 8 of 37 from range. Louisville gave up a 14-3 run late in the first half that created a huge hole as it made just 1 of 9 of its shots during the spell. That allowed Arkansas to expand its lead from eight to 19 with less than four minutes left before halftime.
“First half, especially, we were very discombobulated,” Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said. “We weren’t us, as I told the guys. When it got late, it was a six-point game, thought we got rushed. Just needed to get some stops and string together a couple good offensive possessions, and I thought we got really hurried.”
Calipari went 13-3 against Louisville during his stint at Kentucky. Wednesday’s win may have been less significant than the rivalry games between the Wildcats and Cardinals, but Arkansas needed it. The Razorbacks limped to the NCAA Tournament last season following a modest nonconference showing and a below-.500 SEC record. Now, following losses to No. 4 Duke and No. 7 Michigan State, Arkansas has a major victory on its resume.
“I’ve done a crap job of doing that in the two games we had a chance to win. I hadn’t coached them well enough,” Calipari said. “My thing to them today, prior to the game, you fight and do what you’ve been doing. You get us to the finish line. I will get you over the finish line.”
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