Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he missed out on most of Thursday night's Republican presidential debate but got plenty of entertainment watching a game of high school basketball with University of Kentucky Coach John Calipari.
The governor and championship-winning coach ran into each other watching Bentonville beat West Memphis on Thursday night in Cabot. The governor's grandson, also named Asa Hutchinson, is a teammate of Kentucky signee Malik Monk at Bentonville.
"He's such a gracious person; I was excited about the basketball, and he wanted to talk politics actually," Hutchinson said of Calipari.
The governor said Friday he and Calipari used their phones to get updates from the debate. He also said he teased the coach about signing Monk, the state's top-rated basketball recruit, according to ESPN.
"It was good to be with him and good to have him in Arkansas, as long as he doesn't take any more Razorback recruits," Hutchinson said.
As for the debate Hutchinson and Calipari monitored from the game, the governor said he wasn't pleased with what he read.
"I'm disappointed that it sounds like a debate that you might not have your children watch," Hutchinson said. "I was hoping it would be a higher level policy debate."
With Asa Hutchinson, the governor of Arkansas. pic.twitter.com/hiEHSbp3kw
— John Calipari (@UKCoachCalipari) March 4, 2016