Now that Calipari's in, old friends, foes await his Arkansas March Madness debut

The last time John Calipari and Bill Self met it was a preseason exhibition, but when they meet in the opening round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament this Thursday at 6 p.m. central in Providence, R.I., the stakes will be more befitting their Naismith College Basketball Hall of Fame credentials.

Most of the meetings either occurred at Kansas' Phog Allen Fieldhouse or Kentucky's Rupp Arena where Calipari spent the previous 15 years and won a national championship over Self's Jayhawks in 2012. On the other hand, one of Self's two national championships came over Calipari's Memphis Tigers in 2008.

John Calipari NCAA Tournament press conference

"We have ties, and, you know, he won a national championship against me. I won a national championship against him," Calipari told the press after the announcement of their upcoming meeting by the NCAA Selection Committee on Sunday. "We've played. He's beaten us in Rupp. We've beaten him at Allen. I don't know if we'll play an exhibition game."

No. Their latest matchup on Thursday will be for keeps once again — unlike the preseason exhibition Calipari scheduled back on October 25 to kick off his first outing as head coach of the Arkansas Razorback program. Arkansas won that exhibition handily with the centers for both teams — Kansas' Hunter Dickinson and Arkansas' Jonas Aidoo not available because of injuries.

We got them in an exhibition game. If we go out there (to Lawrence, Kansas), they'll probably get us," Calipari said. "We've done this at a high level for a long, long time — both of us. I hate to play people that are friends or that I know well, but, you know, when you're in this thing, they're just who we are playing."

History repeats Self

That was the case when the two basketball programs last met when it counted in the second round of the Tournament in 2023. With Self positioned to defend his second national championship in 2022, Arkansas — then coached by Eric Musselman — came away with a 72-71 win over the Jayhawks.

It was without Kansas' head coach however as Self suffered a medical emergency in the lead up to the game, and Arkansas advanced to second weekend of the tournament in the Razorbacks' last tournament appearance two years ago.

"That's the first time I thought of it," said Self. "I'll be honest with you. I really don't even remember that tournament. I was so out of it two years ago. I'd like to say I remember, but I I really don't.

"I know that we had a chance late and, didn't make a couple of plays, and they made a couple. But, they end up beating us by one or three or some something like that. But, I'll be honest with you. After I went down in that Big 12 Tournament, I really don't remember much about that year whatsoever."

Self has much fonder and clearer memories of facing Calipari over the years. The two began their careers as assistants under then Jayhawk coach Larry Brown and were on the same staff in 1985. Calipari went on to get his first head coaching job at the University of Massachusetts by 1988 and went on to take the Minute Men to a Final Four in 1996.

"" I was raised as the underdog -- us against everybody. So we it was kind of nice this year to get back to my roots of we're we're underdogs..""

John Calipari

Calipari parlayed that success into a stint in the NBA before returning to the college ranks by 2000 where he eventually took Memphis to a Final Four and lost to Self's Jayhawks in the 2008 Finals. In 2009 Calipari made the move to Lexington, Kentucky where he wracked up another quartet of Final Four appearances and won his only national title over Self in 2011.

Self, who previously coached at Oral Roberts, Tulsa and Illinois before taking the helm at Kansas in 2003, has made the Final Four four times — all at Kansas. That includes a 2018 appearance in the Final Four and a National Championship which Kansas had to vacate for violating NCAA rules.

"(Calipari) always recruited great players and and terrific athletes," said Self who was in line to take the job at Arkansas following the departure of Arkansas' only national championship winning coach Nolan Richardson in 2002. "I think they do a good job coaching them too, and I think they usually guard. And I'm sure they'll do that. They're battle tested -- obviously, going through the grind of the SEC."

"It'll be a fun competitive game. I know we're gonna have to play really well to win, and, I believe they're gonna have to play well to win too. We've bonded against each other quite a bit over time, but I don't believe we've ever gone against each other except in two really big games in the in the NCAA tournament — and we split those. So it'll be a much talked about matchup.

Boogie's Back

Even with leading scorer and rebounder Adou Thiero still out of the lineup, Arkansas is expected to be relatively healthy with the expected return of the team's second-leading scorer Boogie Fland. Fland has been out of the line up since January thanks to a thumb injury which required surgery.

Calipari said Fland was recently cleared by team doctors and could provide some much needed depth to Arkansas' now eight-man playing rotation.

"They came up to me yesterday about Boogie that he had good workouts, and he's gonna be able to practice," Calipari said. "And they called the doctor, and the doctor said if he thinks he can go, let him get through practice. And, I'm good. He wants to play. The greatest piece of it was Boogie saying to me, 'I don't want to screw them up. I just wanna help.' And I said, 'Well, you may play ten to fifteen minutes, but so what?'

"He said, I'd be good. And I said, we may need you more. I don't know. But then I grabbed the team and said, it's not really changing anybody's role or what's going on. We just have an eighth man. So instead of having seven, having foul trouble, or having two or three guys not play well — which is normal stuff — now you have a little bit of breathing room."

Calipari said that Theiro will not play in the opening round of the tournament but could possibly return if Arkansas advances into the second week of tournament play.

The Resilience of Youth

As such, Arkansas could use all the breathing room they can get after battling back from a litany of injuries and an 0-5 start through a Southeastern Conference gauntlet which produced a record 14 of 16 teams in this year's field of 68 NCAA Tournament bids. Calipari said what makes this year's path to the NCAA Tournament all the more remarkable is that it was accomplished with the youngest team in the nation's toughest league — top to bottom.

"The biggest thing you can't plan for is injuries. The stuff that happened to Jonas where he was out four months where he had to have an operation. The stuff that happened to (Johnell Davis) falling out of a golf cart and being out that amount of time. And then all of a sudden, Adou. And then all of a sudden, Boogie, and your two leading scores are out. You can't predict all that stuff.

 "But you say about us being older, you do know we're the youngest team in the SEC. We are the youngest team in the SEC. Yeah, we're older from some of my past teams, but we're still a young team." 

Two Hall of Famers in a Pod

Calipari admitted that the challenges presented to him during his first season at Arkansas hasn't allowed him the luxury to follow how the Jayhawks have fared during the regular season. But now that Arkansas will once again be facing the team that came to Arkansas in the preseason as the No. 1 ranked team in the country, Self and the Jayhawks will have his full undivided attention going into Thursday's tournament opener.

"I'm happy we're in. Let's go play," Calipari said. "I mean, there are other times where I'm like, why would you put us there? Why would you put us in this when we've done this? This year, my first year, trying to establish what we are and what we're about, we're in the NCAA tournament with a chance to advance.

"How many years have I done this? ... Twenty four times? So what you do is there's a little pod because there's all these out there...None of those matter to me. Only this little pod we're in of these four teams. And the reality of it is right now it's one team. And don't watch other games cause you get anxiety...Worry about your little pod, that little corner. The very last one announced, it's all we've to worry about. That's what I tell the players. 

Likewise, Self says he's living in the moment with one eye on the future.

"It's a hard draw, but you deserve a hard draw. You're a seven seed. You're going to play a team that's similar to you regardless, and then you're gonna have to play a team that's had one of the best years in the country in the second game (in St. John's). Regardless if it was Arkansas, regardless if it was Saint John's. So yeah, it's a hard draw, but that's that's the position that we're in and every other seven seed is in. I'm looking forward to it. I think it'll be fun. 

Cinderella Role Reversals

Despite coming into the game with a similar overall record and playing an arguably tougher conference, No. 10 seeded in the Western Regional Arkansas (20-13) comes into the marquee matchup with the No. 7 seeded Jayhawks (21-12) as a five-point underdog. That's not been the case for Calipari many times going into an NCAA Tournament, but he said it brings him back to his underdog roots.

Arkansas' reward for surviving to this point and making it into the tournament was to be placed what many observers are calling the toughest region in the tournament against the team most picked to win the national championship coming into the year. Both Kansas and Arkansas have had their struggles to this point, but Kansas' non-conference schedule evidently earned them a higher seed -- similar to some of Arkansas' conference rivals.

"I don't know if they thought they were in until we sat through the whole thing, and we were (among) the last teams. There were teams in our league that we finished higher than that got better seats. So they start, like, 'Maybe we didn't get it?' And then we pull that 10 (seed), which I was just happy we're in. So now they're doing all the right stuff. That doesn't guarantee that you win, but the other guarantees you lose. So they're doing all the right things.

Calipari said his team is just happy to get an invitation and will gladly try on their glass slippers for an unlikely Cinderella role at the Big Dance.

"I've always been the underdog until the last fifteen years, but I'd always been the underdog," Calipri said. "Now we'd taken those teams and gotten high seeds, but even as a high seed, they'd say they'll get upset. They won't win. I was raised as the underdog -- us against everybody. So we it was kind of nice this year to get back to my roots of we're we're underdogs.

"We were playing games where we're 14 dogs, and we had to go win, and we did. But you do that with defense, with toughness, with guys attacking the basket, making free throws, rebounding tough rebounds, all those kind of things, and shot blocking. One of the things that we have an advantage on is we block shots. It makes you a better defensive team."

Meanwhile Self, whose last seventh seeding was during his days at Tulsa, said his Jayhawks will likewise have to adjust to somewhat lowered expectations from their usually lofty blue-blooded standards.

"Lowest seed that we've had that I've had in, twenty six years," he said. "But trust me on this. Whether you're a three or a seven or a 10 or whatever you are, there could be an advantage as playing a team that could be may be a 15 or 16 that obviously may have more depth or more size or more talent in the first round game. But after that game, you win five games against people that are all really good.

"In this particular situation, if you're not a one or a two (seed), you got to win six games against people that are all really good. There's been a lot of teams that are not one and twos that strung together a pretty good run. So, there's no easy path, but certainly we didn't do ourselves any favors by being inconsistent throughout the season."