This year's NCAA tournament will deliver a top-tier coaching matchup in the round of 32 when Rick Pitino's St. John's Red Storm take on John Calipari's Arkansas Razorbacks.
The No. 10 seed Arkansas got past Bill Self and his No. 7 seed Kansas Jayhawks in the first round, 79-72. Pitino's second-seeded Johnnies waxed the Omaha Mavericks, 83-53, after a slow start in their first-round matchup.
Pitino and Calipari have history, most notably during Pitino's time as the Louisville Cardinals' coach while Calipari coached the Kentucky Wildcats. Both coaches are in the middle of a new journey, with Pitino in Year 2 at St. John's and Calipari in his first year at Arkansas.
"He's on chapter two of his new book, and we're on chapter one," Calipari said in advance of the matchup against Pitino via ESPN. "It's both of us writing another story and being able to come back here."
Although they share similar paths, success and lineages, Pitino admitted before their next showdown the two don't have much of a relationship.
“We don’t know each other’s wives or children,” Pitino said via . “We’re not really close friends. I don’t know a whole lot about him except he’s a terrific basketball coach.”
The seemingly nonexistent relationship is understandable when you consider the two coached opposite sides of in-state rivals Louisville and Kentucky for eight overlapping years. Nevertheless, there's plenty of history between the longtime coaches.
Pitino's first head coaching job was at Boston University, beginning in 1978. After four seasons, he became an assistant for the New York Knicks and later left for Providence, leading the Friars to the Final Four in 1987. He made a leap back to the NBA to take the Knicks' head coach job in 1987, where he resigned after two seasons.
After he left the Knicks, Pitino went back to college to coach Kentucky, where he made the Final Four in 1993 and won the national title in 1996. He went back to the NBA in 1997 as the Boston Celtics' head coach, where he coached against Calipari for a few matchups while he led the New Jersey Nets.
Pitino returned to college in 2001 with Louisville, where he was eventually ousted in 2017 due to a scandal involving recruiting violations. He landed in the EuroLeague in 2018 as the head coach of Panathinaikos in Greece. Iona hired Pitino in 2020, marking his return to the collegiate ranks. He took the Gaels to two NCAA tournament appearances before he left for St. John's.
Calipari got his first head coaching job in 1988 with UMass, where he spent eight seasons. After a run to the Final Four in 1996, he then leapt for the NBA and became the Nets' head coach that year. He was fired just part way through his third season, then joining the Philadelphia 76ers' staff as an assistant.
He went back to college in 2000, taking the Memphis job where he spent nine seasons before moving onto Kentucky. Calipari's 2008 Memphis team, led by Derrick Rose, nearly became the first undefeated team in decades. After 26 straight wins to start the season, they lost to in-state rival Tennessee and eventually fell to Kansas in the national title game. All of Memphis's wins were later vacated from that season however, due to an invalid SAT score from Rose.
He spent 15 seasons leading Kentucky, where he made three Final Fours and won the national championship in 2012.
Calipari left the Wildcats for Arkansas last season, signing a five-year deal worth $7 million per year.
Rick Pitino vs. John Calipari: Head-to-Head Record and All-Time Results
Through their various stops, Pitino and Calipari have been pitted against each other on plenty of occasions, mostly as rivals at Louisville (Pitino) and Kentucky (Calipari).
Overall, they have coached against each other 29 times, including six matchups in the NBA when Pitino coached the Celtics and Calipari led the Nets. They played five times when Calipari coached UMass and Pitino coached Kentucky.
Outside of the Louisville-Kentucky days, the most Pitino vs. Calipari showdowns came between Memphis and Louisville before Calipari took the Kentucky job.
Here are the all-time results of games where Calipari and Pitino were the head coach on opposite sides.
Date
Result
Score
Winning Coach
Dec. 4, 1991
Kentucky (Pitino) beats UMass (Calipari)
90-69
Pitino
March 26, 1992
Kentucky (Pitino) beats UMass (Calipari)
87-77
Pitino
Feb. 6, 1994
Kentucky (Pitino) beats UMass (Calipari)
67-64
Pitino
Nov. 28, 1995
UMass (Calipari) beats Kentucky (Pitino)
92-82
Calipari
March 30, 1996
Kentucky (Pitino) beats UMass (Calipari)
81-74
Pitino
Nov. 19, 1997
New Jersey Nets (Calipari) beats Boston Celtics (Pitino)
108-100
Calipari
Nov. 21, 1997
Boston Celtics (Pitino) beats New Jersey Nets (Calipari)
101-93
Pitino
March 27, 1998
Boston Celtics (Pitino) beats New Jersey Nets (Calipari)
82-76
Pitino
April 8, 1998
New Jersey Nets (Calipari) beats Boston Celtics (Pitino)
117-104
Calipari
Feb. 27, 1999
Boston Celtics (Pitino) beats New Jersey Nets (Calipari)
101-92
Pitino
March 1, 1999
New Jersey Nets (Calipari) beats Boston Celtics (Pitino)
99-97
Calipari
Jan. 30, 2002
Memphis (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
80-70
Calipari
Feb. 19, 2003
Memphis (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
80-73
Calipari
March 14, 2003
Louisville (Pitino) beats Memphis (Calipari)
78-75
Pitino
Feb. 4, 2004
Memphis (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
62-58
Calipari
Feb. 28, 2004
Louisville (Pitino) beats Memphis (Calipari)
66-60
Pitino
Feb. 9, 2005
Memphis (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
68-65
Calipari
Feb. 26, 2005
Louisville (Pitino) beats Memphis (Calipari)
53-44
Pitino
March 12, 2005
Louisville (Pitino) beats Memphis (Calipari)
75-74
Pitino
Jan. 2, 2010
Kentucky (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
71-62
Calipari
Dec. 31, 2010
Kentucky (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
78-63
Calipari
Dec. 31, 2011
Kentucky (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
69-62
Calipari
Dec. 29, 2012
Louisville (Pitino) beats Kentucky (Calipari)
80-77
Pitino
March 31, 2012
Kentucky (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
69-61
Calipari
Dec. 28, 2013
Kentucky (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
73-68
Calipari
March 28, 2014
Kentucky (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
74-69
Calipari
Dec. 27, 2014
Kentucky (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
58-50
Calipari
Dec. 26, 2015
Kentucky (Calipari) beats Louisville (Pitino)
75-73
Calipari
Dec. 21, 2016
Louisville (Pitino) beats Kentucky (Calipari)
73-70
Pitino
Overall, Calipari leads the all-time series against Pitino 16–13, as well as 13–10 in the collegiate ranks. They split their six matchups against each other in the NBA. Calipari rattled off five wins in a row and eight of nine against Pitino as the two battled in the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry.
They haven't coached on opposite sidelines since 2016, making Saturday's round-of-32 game between Arkansas and St. John's a renewed rivalry. The game between the Razorbacks and the Johnnies tips at 2:40 p.m. ET in Providence. The game will be broadcast on CBS.
