Arkansas defeated St. John’s, 75-66, Saturday in an NCAA tournament second round game Saturday. Razorbacks coach John Calipari will coach in his 16th Sweet 16 Thursday.
At 6:10 p.m. Saturday, John Calipari stepped into the passenger seat of a red Jeep Wagoneer, leaving the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, R.I. The Arkansas men’s basketball coach had just led the No. 10 seed Razorbacks to a 75-66 victory over No. 2 seed St. John’s in an NCAA tournament West Regional second round game. Calipari improved to 4-0 in games at the arena, including consecutive victories in the 1996 NCAA first and second round when his University of Massachusetts team was ranked No. 1 in the nation.
Still, what Arkansas accomplished this weekend in Providence was much more surprising and likely more satisfying to Calipari. Nine weeks ago, Arkansas lost, 83-65, at Missouri, falling to 0-5 in the Southeastern Conference. The Razorbacks were seemingly out of contention for an NCAA berth. It wasn’t what anyone expected last April when Calipari agreed to a five-year contract with a base salary of $7 million per year, leaving Kentucky after 15 seasons.
Calipari was once heralded at Kentucky, signing top recruiting classes, sending players to the NBA and winning big. In fact, in Calipari’s first 10 seasons, the Wildcats won the NCAA championship in 2012, made it to the national title game in 2014, advanced to the Final Four two other times and lost in the Elite 8 on three other occasions. But in his final five seasons, Kentucky never made it past the second round, including a first round loss last March to No. 14 seed Oakland that hastened Calipari’s decision to leave for Arkansas.
A year later, Calipari is back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019. The Razorbacks face No. 3 seed Texas Tech Thursday night in San Francisco. Calipari, who turned 66 last month, is just the second coach in NCAA history to take four teams (UMass, Memphis, Kentucky and Arkansas) to the Sweet 16. In all, he has made 16 Sweet 16’s. And he now has 877 career victories, surpassing former Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp for sole possession of eighth place on the all-time list.
The only active coach ahead of Calipari? St. John’s coach Rick Pitino, his longtime rival who is stuck at 885 wins. Calipari now leads Pitino 14-10 in head-to-head matchups in college, including three victories in five NCAA tournament games. Calipari also has 59 NCAA tournament victories in his career, the most among active coaches and sixth all-time.
