John Calipari’s Arkansas debut was an exhibition vs. Kansas

John Calipari’s first time as head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks will be on the Bud Walton Arena sideline for the first time against preseason No. 1 Kansas.

Calipari posted on X that Arkansas has scheduled two preseason charity exhibition games, the first coming Oct. 25 at home against Kansas.

The Jayhawks are ranked No. 1 in ESPN’s Way-To-Early Top 25.

Arkansas will face TCU on Nov. 1 in Fort Worth in a charity exhibition game.

The Razorbacks hired Calipari from Kentucky last April after 15 seasons with the Wildcats. He led the program to a national championship in 2012 and went to four Final Fours in his first six seasons in Lexington.

“It’s a dream job. It’s been my dream job,” Calipari said as he left Kentucky. “Anyone in our profession looks at the University of Kentucky in basketball and says, this is the bluest of blues. In the last few weeks, we’ve realized that maybe this program needs to hear another voice. And the fans need to hear another voice. We’ve loved it here, but we feel It’s time for us to walk away from this program completely.

Calipari, who replaces Eric Musselman in Fayetteville, signed a five-year deal at Arkansas starting at $7 million per season.

He rebuilt the Razorbacks’ roster by bringing in three players trained at Kentucky (DJ Wagner, Adu Thiero, Jvonimir Ivicic) and three players signed at Kentucky (Januel Fland, Carter Knox, Billy Richmond), as well as a top-10 transfer. Janelle Davis and Jonas Aidoo.

Bill Self’s team is looking to bounce back from last season, the Jayhawks’ worst campaign since Self took over in 2003.

Kansas returns three starters, including All-American Hunter Dickinson, and added star transfers AJ Storr (Wisconsin), Rylan Griffen (Alabama) and Jake Mayo (South Dakota State).