It wasn’t just any loss for John Calipari; he lost to his old team. The Razorbacks lost at home for the first time this season on January 31, when they lost to Kentucky 85–77. This loss showed that Arkansas has a big problem with how they spread out its scoring. This loss is a wake-up call for Calipari in his first year. It makes him ask tough questions about whether he has the right players and whether they are growing in the way he needs them to.

Freshman point guard Darius Acuff Jr. can’t keep up with the offensive load anymore. Jeff Goodman said on The Field of 68: After Dark that, “Somebody else has to do it at some point. It can’t always be Darius Acuff Jr. Somebody else has to step up for him, and nobody did that for him today. I think too much is on his shoulders right now.”

He added, “You look at what they got out of Carter Knox, Nick Pringle, and DJ Wagner: a total of four points. Cal doesn’t go deep in his rotation. He plays eight guys. They usually play eight. Basically got four points out of three guys. One of their strengths is that they’ve got other guys that can hurt you. DJ Wagner’s been just okay. To me, they’re too reliant on Darius Acuff Jr., and he can’t do it every game.”

The statistics show that Arkansas’s performance backs up Goodman’s assessment. Acuff scored 22 points for the Razorbacks, 17 of which came in the second half, but his teammates weren’t always there for him. Carter Knox, Nick Pringle, and DJ Wagner only scored four points between them, which is very low for players who were supposed to help.

Arkansas made only 16 of 26 free throws and 3 of 14 three-pointers, but Acuff’s good shooting couldn’t make up for the team’s overall poor shooting throughout the game.

The shooting problems went beyond just the role players. Norm Roberts, an analyst on The Field of 68, said, “They really didn’t shoot the ball well tonight. They were three for 14 from the three-point line. Meleek Thomas has really been shooting it well for him and doing some good things that way. I just thought that Kentucky looked like the more physical team,” Roberts said.

The issue is clear. Arkansas had five players in double figures, but the offense was uneven, and Acuff was the clear focal point. Kentucky’s depth and physicality as notable with four players in double figures, led by Oweh prevailed.

The game showed Arkansas’s reliance on Acuff, and the loss, snapping a long home win streak highlighted issues with supporting production and shooting efficiency.

This game shows what everyone already knows: one freshman can’t lead a team by himself. Calipari needs to trust more players, or the supporting cast needs to step up. Neither of these things is happening right now.

John Calipari admits Kentucky wanted it more than Arkansas

But here’s what the numbers don’t tell the whole story. This wasn’t just about how bad Arkansas’s offense was. Kentucky was hungrier and played with an edge that Arkansas couldn’t match. Otega Oweh led the Wildcats with 24 points, and four other Kentucky players scored in double digits.

This showed that Arkansas really needed more balanced scoring. The real turning point came near the end of the game when Arkansas couldn’t handle the pressure.

After the loss, Coach John Calipari admitted what happened. “Give them credit. This was Kentucky coming in more desperate than us. Played way rougher than we played and came up with balls that we just didn’t come up with,” Calipari said.

A single technical foul changed the whole game. Ewin’s technical foul gave Kentucky the lead with 8:07 left in the game. The Wildcats made five free throws, and then Moreno dunked 43 seconds later to give them the lead. After that, Oweh took over and scored 11 points in 10 minutes. Kentucky ended the game on a 26-18 run that Arkansas couldn’t match.

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While the full-game turnover numbers were low for both sides (Kentucky finished with just 7, and the matchup never turned into a turnover-fest), the closing stretch told a different story.

As Kentucky ramped up its pressure defense late, Arkansas increasingly struggled to cope with the Wildcats’ physicality and trapping on the perimeter. That pressure led to a string of rushed shots, forced passes, and live-ball situations that tilted the final minutes toward Kentucky instead of sparking an Arkansas rally.

Even when Arkansas briefly caught a break in the final two minutes — an Oweh turnover that helped cut the deficit to six — Kentucky never panicked. Rather than letting that mistake snowball, Mark Pope’s team immediately used a timeout to reset, organize the press break, and steady the half-court offense, effectively shutting the door on any late Razorbacks surge.

The lack of composure under pressure was mirrored in transition, where Arkansas managed just 2 fast-break points all game, a season low that underscored their inability to flip defense into easy offense when the tension rose.

In a game where the margins tightened late, that failure to generate anything in the open floor became one more reason Kentucky controlled the endgame instead of Calipari’s Razorbacks.