Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
Arkansas and Gonzaga will open their exhibition schedules against each other Saturday in a matchup of two ranked teams and two Hall of Fame coaches.
No. 12 Arkansas hosts No. 15 Gonzaga at 3 p.m. Saturday at Bud Walton Arena. It’s the first exhibition of the fall for both programs.
The Razorbacks get one more tuneup after this one, with Memphis coming to Fayetteville on Wednesday.
Neither game counts toward the 2026-27 record. The all-time series between Arkansas and Gonzaga won’t change, either.
The game streams on SEC Network+ and Watch ESPN, with Josh Haley and Joe Kleine on the call.
Chuck Barrett and Matt Zimmerman will handle the radio broadcast on the Learfield Razorback Sports Network. There’s no SiriusXM broadcast.
Arkansas rarely loses home exhibitions
Arkansas is 76-11 all-time in exhibition games. At home, it’s 67-9.
The Razorbacks have won 40 straight home exhibitions.
Two of the more recent wins came against teams ranked No. 1 in the preseason.
Two years ago, Kansas came to town as the preseason No. 1 team and lost 85-69.
Preseason No. 1 Purdue made the trip the year before. That one went to overtime before the Hogs won 81-77.
Arkansas didn’t fare as well on the road before the 2022-23 season.
That fall, a preseason No. 10 Arkansas team went to No. 12 Texas to help open the Longhorns’ new Moody Center. Texas won 90-60.
Gonzaga and Arkansas have split two games
Officially, these programs have played just twice. Each one has a win.
Gonzaga took the first 91-81 at the 2013 Maui Invitational. Kevin Pangos led the Bulldogs with 34 points and went 7 of 8 from 3-point range.
Bobby Portis scored 18 for Arkansas, and Alandise Harris had 17.
The second meeting came on a bigger stage. In the 2022 Sweet 16 in San Francisco, Arkansas beat a Gonzaga team ranked No. 1 in the country.
JD Notae led the Hogs with 21 points. Jaylin Williams had 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Trey Wade added 15 points, made 3 of 4 from 3-point range and grabbed seven rebounds.
Drew Timme scored 25 for the Zags, and Chet Holmgren had 11 points and 14 rebounds. The loss ended Gonzaga’s season.
Calipari and Few have a long history
John Calipari is 4-2 all-time against Gonzaga.
All four wins came while he was at Memphis, when the two schools played home-and-home series.
Mark Few won the last two, both against Calipari’s Kentucky teams. The Zags won Nov. 20, 2022, in Spokane, Washington, and Feb. 10, 2024, in Lexington, Kentucky.
Both men are in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Calipari was inducted in 2015. Few went in this year with the class of 2026.
When Few was inducted, Calipari was one of three people who presented him, along with John Stockton and Grant Hill.
Few and Calipari sit at the top of the list
Among active Division I coaches with at least 10 years of experience, Few and Calipari rank first and second in on-court winning percentage.
Few is 772-156 in his 27th season. That works out to .832.
Calipari is 905-286 in his 34th season, good for .759.
They’re also 1-2 in conference championships.
Few has 43, counting regular-season and tournament titles. Calipari has 32.
Neither total will change Saturday since the exhibition won’t count.
