PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Arkansas didn’t back off the gas just because they got into the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re still play,” Razorbacks coach John Calipari said after 10th-seeded Arkansas downed No. 7 seed Kansas on Thursday night. It was just the latest meeting between two of college basketball’s winningest coaches.
Jonas Aidoo scored 22 points and Johnell Davis added 18 points, including some crucial late free throws, to help Calipari to his first tournament victory as Hogs coach. Freshman standout Boogie Fland played for the first time since having right thumb surgery in January and scored six points in 24 minutes.
Arkansas will get either No. 2 seed St. John’s or No. 15 Omaha in the second round of the West Region on Saturday.
Zeke Mayo had 18 points for Kansas (21-13), which has made 35 straight NCAA Tournaments and hadn’t lost in the first round since 2006. Aj Storr finished with 15 points and Hunter Dickinson added 11 points and nine rebounds.
Thursday’s matchup was the third March Madness meeting between two of the four active win leaders in men’s college basketball. Calipari is second (876), with Bill Self of Kansas fourth (831) on the list. Both previous meetings were in the national championship game, with each winning once.
Kansas erased what was an 11-point, second-half deficit and nudged ahead 65-64 on a follow shot by Storr with less than six minutes remaining.
The Jayhawks kept the lead until Aidoo connected on a pair of free throws to put the Razorbacks back in front. Arkansas got a stop on the other end and then got a 3-pointer by Davis that gave it a 71-67 cushion with less than two minutes on the clock.
Arkansas’ edge was down to 71-69 before Davis dropped in a pair of free throws. Dickinson missed a 3 on Kansas’ next trip and Arkansas added two more free throws.
The Jayhawks got it back down to 75-72 on a 3-pointer by Rylan Griffen with 13 seconds left. The Razorbacks called back-to-back timeouts trying to get the ball inbounds. They finally did and Davis calmly sank two free throws to help close it out.
It was Arkansas’ first tournament victory since reaching the Sweet 16 in 2023 under former coach Eric Musselman.
The Razorbacks could now face the active coach with the most wins – St. John’s Rick Pitino (884) – in Saturday’s second round. The pair were longtime rivals when Calipari was Kentucky and Pitino coached at Louisville.
