In his first year as Arkansas’ head coach, John Calipari has the Razorbacks in the Sweet 16. This is the fourth program he’s led to NCAA Tournament prominence.
Calipari Is Doing Just Fine
Perhaps rumors of Calipari’s coaching demise were just that. After his unceremonious exit from Lexington after 15 seasons at Kentucky last year and a rocky 0-5 start in SEC play with his new school, Arkansas, the legendary coach with the complex history is just where he wants to be—the Sweet 16.
Calipari has advanced to the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend for the 16th time in his coaching career with his fourth school. UMASS, Memphis, Kentucky, and Arkansas have all reached that destination under Calipari’s tutelage.
His new team, No. 10 seed Arkansas, upset No. 2 seed St. John’s, coached by Rick Pitino, Saturday afternoon, 75-66. Calipari ousted another friend and long-time coaching icon in the first round, as his Razorbacks sent No. 7 seed Kansas and coach Bill Self packing. According to CBS Sports, Calipari is the fourth coach to earn back-to-back tournament victories over Naismith Hall of Famers.
Calipari is also the only coach to defeat Pitino three times in the Big Dance. The two men are the active wins leaders in NCAA Division I men’s basketball. Over the years, Calipari’s teams have won 18 regular-season conference championships and 15 conference tournament crowns. Calipari is 59-22 in NCAA Tournament play, and all four of his programs have reached the Final Four, with Kentucky winning it all in 2012.
How Did Calipari Get Here?
Calipari’s early success at UMASS in the 1990s is as grainy and lost to history as decent Sportscenter highlights. Now a seasoned veteran and Hall of Fame coach at 66, Calipari was a brash young 30-something guiding a UMASS program that was so far off the map it hadn’t made the NCAA tournament since 1962. Calipari had the Minutemen dancing five years in a row, reaching the Final Four in 1996 with a Marcus Camby-led squad.
Following a brief, reasonably unsuccessful three-year foray into the NBA with the then-New Jersey Nets, Calipari returned to the collegiate level with Memphis. Calipari’s teams reached the NCAA Tournament six times in nine seasons, including an appearance in the national championship game 2008.
His success with the Tigers led him to the top of the ladder, where he became head coach of blueblood Kentucky in 2009. In 15 seasons in Lexington, he led the Wildcats to 12 tournament appearances, including four Final Fours and one national title.
Saving the Best For Last
Poor performances in recent years against low seeds Saint Peters and Oakland (Mi.) helped Calipari exit with less fanfare in 2024 than a national championship-winning coach should receive. He’s in Fayetteville and has his Razorbacks in the Sweet 16. This is the program’s fourth appearance in this round in the past five years, but Arkansas has not reached the Final Four since Nolan Richardson’s height 30 years ago.
Calipari got his new squad off to an 11-2 start, but five straight losses to start the SEC portion of the schedule had his team on the outside looking in of the NCAA Tournament near the end of January.
Arkansas took a 12-8 overall, 1-6 SEC record to Lexington on Feb. 1 for Calipari’s first contest against his former squad. His Razorbacks responded, knocking off the Wildcats 89-79, setting the tone for the rest of the season.
Now, Calipari has his team poised for a Final Four run, starting with a trip to San Francisco and the Sweet 16 on Thursday night, where the Razorbacks will take on third-seeded Texas Tech.
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A year ago, around this time, Calipari’s coaching eulogy was being written. Now, the future is again limitless for Hall of Famers.
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