When John Calipari chose to leave his comfortable position as head coach of the Kentucky Wildcats to become the new lead man for the Arkansas Razorbacks, no one knew how things would good. It was a risky gamble, but it was one that clearly paid off for the legendary head coach during the 2024-25 college basketball season.
After finishing the regular season with a 22-14 record, Arkansas made it into the NCAA Tournament. Not only did they make it into the tournament, they made some March Madness noise as well.
In their first game of the tournament, the Razorbacks defeated No. 7 Kansas by a final score of 79-72. They then went on to stun Rick Pitino and the No. 2-seeded St. John’s Red Storm by a final score of 75-66 to reach the Sweet Sixteen.
Unfortunately, that is where their season came to an end. Arkansas lost to Texas Tech by a final score of 85-83 to close out their year.
Despite not making it past the Sweet Sixteen, the season was a resounding success. Calipari clearly has the program back on track.
On Thursday, the Razorbacks made a post on X that shared major news about Calipari. He made some school history in his first year with the program.
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Arkansas revealed that Calipari is the first head coach in school history to win two March Madness games and to finish the season in the top 25.
Clearly, that is a major accomplishment for the elite head coach. Even without the big-name program like Kentucky, he continues finding ways to win and develop young talent.
Throughout his illustrious career following the 2024-25 campaign, Calipari now has compiled a career 835-275 overall record. That is good enough for a 75.2 percent win rate.
At 66 years old, Calipari has the Razorbacks heading in the right direction and might have them being a team to watch in 2025-26.
