There's no question that the star of tonight's Sweet 16 game between No. 3 seed Texas Tech and No. 10 seed Arkansas will be the Razorbacks' head coach, John Calipari. He is one of the most famous and successful college basketball coaches of his generation, and he will be one of the top stories regardless of how the game turns out.
Calipari, now 66 years old, began his coaching career at Kansas as an assistant in 1982. He's been a head coach in the college ranks since 1988 when he took over at UMASS. He's also coached at Memphis (2000-09) and Kentucky (2009-23) following three seasons as the head coach of the New Jersey Nets (1996-99) and one season as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia 76ers (1999-2000) in the NBA. His greatest accomplishment has been winning the 2012 National Championship at Kentucky.
He's now in his first season at Arkansas, where he's made an improbable run to the Sweet 16. While his team has as much talent as any in the country (at least on paper), injuries have plagued the Razorbacks this season and were a big reason why Calipari's team started SEC play 0-5 in January.
At that time, no one thought that Arkansas would be destined for the Sweet 16. However, in one of the better coaching jobs of his career, Calipari has coaxed as much as possible out of his team this season, and now, the Hogs are peaking at the right time.
Wednesday, ahead of their game with Texas Tech, Calipari met with the media, and he had great things to say about the Red Raiders. First, he was asked about slowing down JT Toppin, the Big 12 Player of the Year.
"I'll say it again," he said, "Texas Tech, well-coached. They can beat you inside or outside, shooting 3s, posting the ball, throwing it to 15 feet, backing you down, making you make decisions.
"The biggest thing with Toppin, he's a great passer. Not only do you talk about scoring, when you try to do different things, he can really pass.
"I'll say this, there's a reason we're the underdog in this game. They're very, very good. But it's a different deal covering this team than, whether it be Kansas or St. John's."
When playing No. 2 seed St. John's in the second round, Arkansas held star St. John's guard RJ Lewis Jr. to just nine points on 3-17 shooting. The 2025 Big East Player of the Year, Lewis averaged 18.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game this season, but he was so bad against Arkansas that he was benched during the closing minutes of the game despite the fact that the contest was still up for grabs.
Though he is 6-foot-7 (which is essentially what Toppin is), Lewis is more of a perimeter player, so Calipari and his team will face different challenges when trying to slow down the Big 12's best player.
Later, Calipari was asked about the 2019 game in which he brought his Kentucky team to Lubbock as part of the Big 12 / SEC Challenge. That night, Calipari's and the Wildcats escaped with a 76-74 overtime win in front of a raucous crowd at United Supermarkets Arena. It seems as if that game made an impression on Calipari because, on Wednesday, he talked extensively about the atmosphere that night.
"Crazy, crazy," he said. "They were intense. There were thousands of them. Half the building was students, if I'm not mistaken. It was an unbelievable environment. The facilities, but I came down when Coach Knight was there. And I came in, when Coach Knight was there, to talk to him about the dribble-drive and what he thought of it, because his was motion and screening, and this was wide open, downhill running, touch the lane.
"He gave me two great pieces of advice. There's got to be time when the ball stops. So you can, boop, boop, boop, but the ball stops, and make sure you can start again. And it changed how we did it.
"And he also said start some of it with pick and roll. So I was down there. He took me to a place to eat, which was a Chinese place that he used to eat at. He had like a bowl of butter and he was dipping -- I'm like, oh, disgusting -- but, yeah.
"But you know what was great? He had me in his car and it was going neet, neet, neet, neet. What the hell was that? He left the seatbelt it ran out of juice to yell, put your seatbelt on.
"But I've been down there a few different times. I'm a fan of Texas Tech, what they do, how they do it, their fans. It was nuts that night we played. I remember we made a shot to take it to overtime, I think. And if I'm remembering right, it was Immanuel Quickley in the corner, made a 3 to take it to overtime."
Finally, Calipari was asked to turn his attention to Grant McCasland and this year's Red Raiders. He spoke highly about the Texas Tech head coach and the job he's done this season in the Big 12.
"I'm watching tape and I say, in that league, to have that record, to go on the road and win the games he's won, that team, he's got them playing together and for each other," he said.
"We can play really fast, but we can also grind it if we had to. We could slow the game down, which we'll do at times.
"They can shoot the 3 or, if you try to take that away, they can post it. And they play that way. And they'll figure out where there's an advantage and they go right after it. He's done a great job. He really has.
"It's going to be a really hard game for us. But you know what? My kids, they've come through the fire. And my guess is other than a fan of Arkansas, no one is picking us to win the game. But the great news in this tournament, you've got to play the games. Gotta play them.
"And so we'll see. And I'll tell the kids, I'm going to do my best for 40 minutes to give you everything I have. Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes I'm not as good. But we'll see."