John Calipari made sure he won the Kentucky breakup with postgame press conference

Did you hear John Calipari defeated his old team, the Kentucky Wildcats, on Saturday night after he was booed in pregame warmups? Well I certainly did, and while I'm not a fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks or Kentucky, I can assure you the message was received.

Kentucky will easily make the NCAA Tournament and was coming off a huge victory over the Tennessee Volunteers this week. Calipari's return was the ultimate trap game, as Arkansas is fighting for their bubble status and much of Kentucky's roster never saw minutes under Calipari. This is because Cal took at least three players with him to Arkansas, and poached from UK's recruiting class. Don't let anyone tell you college basketball recruiting is a respectful business. It isn't, and Cal knew that.

John Calipari made sure he won the breakup against Kentucky in his postgame presser

Calipari didn't gloat all that much in his postgame press conference. He was right not to do so, as he wanted to come out of this whole affair as the bigger man. If anyone knows what Big Blue Nation wants, it's Calipari.

“Well, it’s hard to win in here,” Calipari said. “And I got to be honest with you, and Adou said he did the same thing. I looked up a couple times and I thought we were losing because I kept looking atKentucky instead of Arkansas. And I told him, I did that and Adou said, ‘coach, I did the samething.’ It was 15 years here, you know?”

At the outset of the press conference, Calipari played the role of ultimate protector, as he stopped several of his Arkansas players from arguing with Kentucky fans.

Yes, Calipari thinks he won the breakup, and it's tough to argue with him. Arkansas has lower expectations than Kentucky, and making the tournament with this group in his first season with the Razorbacks would be deemed a massive success. Sure, Arkansas is just 13-8, but with a big win over a top-10 Kentucky team under their belt, the Razorbacks tournament resume just got a lot stronger.

The SEC is the best conference in college basketball, and should get as many as 12 teams into the tournament at this rate. Arkansas could be one of those teams, especially if they make a late run. The schedule doesn't get any easier from here for Cal and Co. Arkansas faces Texas, Alabama, LSU, Texas A&M, Auburn and Missouri in their next six games. As of this writing, four of those teams are ranked.