Jan 28, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; St. John’s Red Storm head coach Rick Pitino celebrates during the first half against the Georgetown Hoyas at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images I was in Pittsburgh at this time last year, covering the first-round NCAA Tournament games there. I was courtside for the Jack Gohlke game — Oakland’s 14-3 upset of Kentucky engineered by the future accountant’s 10 3-pointers.
What we didn’t know at the time was that it marked John Calipari’s final game as the coach of Kentucky. The heat was rising with his lack of recent tournament success, but for him to bolt for SEC rival Arkansas was another matter.
There’s the unique appeal of college basketball for you. If Gohlke doesn’t hit those shots, we don’t get today’s massive coaching showdown in the second round.
Because the only thing that feels like it matters from the first round of this NCAA Tournament is that it produced a matchup of Calipari vs. Rick Pitino.
Saturday’s appointment viewing is at 2:40 p.m. Eastern time, when Calipari’s 10th-seeded Arkansas faces Pitino’s second-seeded St. John’s with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.
There’s an old saying about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb. Well, March Madness certainly came in like a lamb this year. Exciting as some of the games were, it produced only one 11-6 upset and two 12 seeds beating fives. Nothing wilder than that — much more chalk than usual.
I have a feeling, then, that the tournament will go out like a lion — starting with a matchup of two lions of the sport.
In the fraternity of college basketball coaching, many opposing coaches are pals — today’s Drake-Texas Tech game being a prime example. The Calipari-Pitino rivalry, dating back to their Kentucky and Louisville days and even further, is not that. There’s respect, but it ends there.
“I don’t think we have been to dinner one time in our lifetime,” Pitino said Friday. “We’re both Italian. We both love the game. I think that’s where the similarities end.”
Pitino did try to do Calipari a solid earlier this year, at least on the surface, though it was more like stirring the pot. From his office at St. John’s, he filmed a video of himself telling Kentucky fans not to boo Calipari when he returned for a game with his Razorbacks.
“It was nice of him. I would rather have a Christmas card, but that was nice of him,” Calipari cracked Friday.
Calipari holds a 13-10 lead over Pitino in their all-time head-to-head. Pitino won their first two meetings in the NCAA Tournament, Calipari the next two.
Fitting that Saturday’s showdown will break that 2-2 tie. They’re coaching brand-new teams nobody in the year 2022 thought would have been theirs. The players, in fact, are too young to have basically any recollection of the prior bouts in this rivalry.
Arkansas clawed back from an 0-5 start in SEC play to earn an NCAA Tournament at-large bid, then beat Bill Self and Kansas in the first round. St. John’s has won 10 in a row, dominated the Big East for the regular-season and tournament titles, and captured the program’s first NCAA Tournament win in 25 years against Omaha.
“They’re a team that’s going to be prepared,” Calipari said of Pitino’s coaching. “They’re going to play hard. They’re going to play rough. It’s going to be bump and grind. You’re not getting a free layup without getting bumped. That’s his teams.”
We’ll see how things are handled the moment one of these coaches gets heated or there’s a call someone doesn’t like (and there will be calls neither of them like). For a tournament that could be headed for a very chalky Final Four, Pitino-Calipari may be what we end up remembering most.
