John Calipari had a feeling about which teams would be in Arkansas’s bracket. But he admitted to being surprised by the site.
Arkansas met with the media on Wednesday. Calipari shared how he told Razorback players that he expected the Hogs’ path to include Kansas and St. John’s.
“I kind of predicted it,” Calipari told reporters. “I predicted to my team in practice, here’s what they’re going to do to us… should I say it that way? The team is like how? Because I’ve done this.”
Calipari continued, praising familiar foe Bill Self and his Kansas squad.
“But playing someone I have respect for in this is hard,” Calipari said. “Both of us are trying to beat each other’s brains in. Then you feel bad and then you move on thinking about the next game.
“No, (the Jayhawks are) good, they’re big. They struggled some, so have we, but he’s a great coach, has built terrific programs and cultures that win. So it will be a hard game for us, a really hard game.”
Later, a reporter wanted to clarify if Calipari expected only to play to Kansas or the possibility of playing Rick Pitino’s St. John’s squad in the second round.
“Both,” Calipari confirmed. “Not that they would be the 2 (seed). I said they would be the 2, if we come out 10 (seed), they told me who the 7s were. I said we’ll play Kansas. … I thought it may be played somewhere else.”
That somewhere else Calipari expected was his former stomping grounds of Rupp Arena, a first- and second-round host site. The former Kentucky coach had jokes about how the 3 teams wound up in Providence, Rhode Island.
“When I saw we weren’t there, ‘I’m like, ‘Wow, somebody must have been sick and went to the bathroom or something for them not the put us there,'” Calipari quipped.
One thing’s for sure, March Madness opening weekend in Providence has some coaching star power with Pitino favored to face Calipari or Self for a spot in the Sweet 16.
John Calipari jokes about Arkansas being paired with Kansas, St. John’s Saturday Down South.
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