When John Calipari's Arkansas Razorbacks (20-13, 8-10 SEC) and Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks (21-12, 11-9 Big 12) meet in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, it'll mark the 13th time both head coaches have faced off on the hardwood.
The legendary duo has had their fair share of high-stakes matchups, including Self's triumph over Calipari's Memphis Tigers in the 2008 National Championship game, Kentucky's 2012 National Championship victory over Kansas and plenty of other ranked in-season contests.
Last season, Calipari's last with the Wildcats, Self evened up the all-time record between the two, 6-6, with an 89-84 win over Kentucky in the Champions Classic at the United Center in Chicago.
Arkansas and Kansas didn't battle during the regular schedule, but the Razorbacks did start their preseason off with an 85-69 charity exhibition win over then-No. 1 Kansas — though both teams were missing their veteran big men.
Since then, neither team has had the seasons they hoped for. Self finished sixth in the Big 12, while Calipari ended ninth in the SEC. Despite all the national conversation around Self's struggles and the noted friendship Calipari has with his colleague, he said he didn't pay much attention to Kansas throughout the year.
"I’ll be honest, I wasn’t following their struggles," Calipari said Sunday. "I had my own struggles. So I was not… I wasn’t following college basketball. I was following my individual players and what we had to do. So there was a point, they lost a game and I was like, ‘Wow.’ Then I saw their record and I said, ‘What in the world?’ He’s probably not following us and then seeing we were 0-5, saying, ‘What in the world?’"
Now, like many times before, Calipari and Self will duke it out where the lights shine brightest — March Madness. The Round of 64 is the earliest both Hall-of-Famers have seen each other in the Big Dance, but it sets up for a great opening night of television.
"We have ties and he won a national championship against me, I won a national championship against him," Calipari said. "We’ve played, he’s beaten us in Rupp, we’ve beaten him in Allen. I don’t know if we’ll play an exhibition game… We got them in an exhibition game. If we go out there, they’ll probably get us.
"I mean, we’ve done this at a level for a long, long time, both of us. And I hate to play people that are friends or that I know well, but when you’re in this thing, you’re just, ‘Who are we playing? Alright, let’s see what we have to do to try to win.’"
When speaking to the media Sunday, Self gave a snippet of what he expects from the game. Self and the Jayhawks last faced Arkansas in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, a Round of 32 matchup that the Hogs won, 72-71.
"To me, (Calipari is) always great at recruiting great players and terrific athletes," Self said. "I think they do a good job coaching them too, and I think they usually guard, and I'm sure they'll do that, and they're battle-tested obviously going through the grind of the SEC. It'll be a fun, competitive game."
Calipari and Self will tip off Thursday in Providence, Rhode Island, at the Amica Mutual Pavilion. The game will start at 6:10 p.m. and it will air on CBS.
