Mark Pope is not just the head coach of the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team, he’s also an alumnus of UK. So, when asked about how he feels about former UK head man John Calipari, who brings his Arkansas team to Rupp Arena on Saturday night, Pope had nothing but high praise.

“On a personal level, I love competing against people that I admire and look up to and love, and Cal is certainly one of those people,” Pope said. “He’s a Hall of Fame coach, he’s a legend in the sport and he’s one of the best that ever was. He also has an unbelievable legacy here at the University of Kentucky. It’s like an in-state game, just in the sense that there’s no one you love to compete against more than your brother, somebody in the family or somebody tied to you. And you’re searching for bragging rights.”

Less than a year after leaving Lexington for Fayetteville, Calipari returns to Rupp Arena on Saturday night as his Razorbacks take on Pope’s Cats in one of the season’s most anticipated college basketball games. Pope knows it’s a big game, but it’s not the reason that most of the Big Blue Nation would cite.

“One of the really calming things for us is, we’re going to get to a first-round game in the SEC Tournament and it’s going to be the biggest game we’ve played in all season long, and it’s going to feel really familiar,” Pope said. “When we were playing Colgate, that was the biggest game and we prepared that way. It was the biggest game, the most important game, the highest-energy game that we’ve played in all year long. Saturday is the biggest game of our entire season. In that sense, it’s really familiar.”

Saturday night’s contest in Rupp Arena might be the best atmosphere in college basketball this season. Pope is embracing the hype and most things that go with it.

“I love the drama. It’s Kentucky. It follows us in everything we do,” Pope said. “People feel how much we can so they care to be interested. I love that people are interested in what’s happening here. These moments in time are fun for fans and fun to capture and they can be super dramatic. I think it’s great.”

Kentucky is coming off an impressive 78-73 win at No. 8 Tennessee on Tuesday. The Cats played without starting point guard Lamont Butler and essentially without starting forward Andrew Carr (who played less than two minutes). Still, the Cats placed five players in double figures and UK hit 12 of 24 from beyond the arc. While that win was important and impressive, Pope knows that he and his team still have plenty of work ahead of them and that anything can happen every time the Cats take the court.

“At the end of the day, we have serious work to do,” Pope said. “This league is brilliant and wonderful and incredibly competitive and every single team can win every single night. That’s what consumes most of our time.”

While Saturday may be the biggest game of the regular season for fans, because of the return of Calipari, it’s the biggest game in Pope’s mind because it’s the next game on the schedule.