University of Kentucky students camped overnight outside Rupp Arena before the men’s basketball game against unranked Arkansas.
Many students, like Matthew Maloney, a freshman psychology major, said they were eager to see John Calipari, Arkansas’ head coach and former head coach for UK, make a return to Rupp Arena at the game on Saturday, Feb. 1.
While some students said they were excited to see Calipari, others said they saw this more as an opportunity to voice their opinions about the former UK coach.
“Normally, I would never do this, but Calipari kind of gave up on the program,” Jesse Riggins, a senior marketing major, said. “I just feel like this is a perfect opportunity to explain how I feel to him.”
Some students, like Pat Riley, a sophomore broadcast journalism major, said even though they appreciated what Calipari did for UK’s men’s basketball program, they still planned to treat him like a rival during the game.
“I’m glad that he was here, but he’s the opposing coach now, and I feel that we should treat him as all opposing coaches,” Riley said.
Riley said he thought Calipari may be expecting shows of support when coming back to his former court, but this wouldn’t be the case for many fans.
“I feel like he kinda feels like there’s going to be some form of reverence,“ Riley said. “As soon as that whistle’s blown, no it’s all gone.”
However, some students weren’t so sure of how the audience would react to Calipari’s return, Skylar Price, a freshman management major, said.
“That’s the question, booed or cheered, which way is it gonna go,” Price said.
This wasn’t the first time Price had camped out for a men’s basketball game. Price said she and her friends were six hours early to the game against No. 2 Alabama.
Unlike Price, the game against Arkansas was some students’ first experience camping out in anticipation of a game, like for John Marciano, a senior political science major.
“I haven’t really done anything like this before,” Marciano said. “Before I graduated, it’s definitely something I wanted to check off my bucket list.”
Riley, camping out with Marciano, said he wished camping out before games was more common at UK, pointing out how students at Duke University do it frequently at “K-ville.”.
Duke’s K-ville, or Krzyzewskiville, is “the location of the tenting line for students wishing to gain access,” according to Duke campus maps.
“We should do this all the time,” Riley said. “We should care about basketball more.”