Kansas head coach Bill Self pulls his players in for a huddle during the first half against Arizona on Thursday, March 13, 2025 at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Photo by Nick Krug

Providence, R.I. — Escaping the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament has become an increasingly difficult task for the Kansas men’s basketball team in recent years.

Since 2018, the Jayhawks have done so just once — and it resulted in a national title.

This year, after a lackluster regular season that resulted in a No. 7 seed, the Jayhawks have earned themselves a harder road out of their tournament-opening pod than ever before, especially given that the group of four teams competing at Amica Mutual Pavilion as part of the West Region features two additional Hall of Fame coaches beyond Bill Self.

First up is John Calipari, now in his first season leading the Arkansas Razorbacks after a much-publicized move away from Kentucky following a string of disappointing postseason exits of his own. He and Self, frequent regular-season foes, have only previously faced off in the NCAA Tournament in, as Self put it in a bit of an understatement, “two really big games.”

Those would be a pair of championships: in 2008, when Self beat Calipari’s Memphis team (with “Mario’s Miracle”), and four years later, when Calipari and Kentucky came out on top.

This latest matchup, No. 7 KU and No. 10 Arkansas in a first-round battle in Providence on Thursday night, may not possess the same gravitas, but it features identical stakes for the losing team, which will go home with a disappointing conclusion to its season.

“It’ll be a tough game,” Self said on Tuesday, “one that I think will certainly garner some national attention just because of the two teams going against each other.”

For KU, a loss would mean the first first-round exit since it lost to Bradley in 2006, as well as the conclusion of the careers of seven seniors, including 80% of its starting lineup in guards Dajuan Harris Jr. and Zeke Mayo, forward KJ Adams and center Hunter Dickinson.

Unlike KU, which had a 35th straight NCAA Tournament appearance (though the 2018 one was, of course, vacated) cinched up for much of the year and was simply struggling to maintain a solid seed, Arkansas had to sweat out its postseason prospects, particularly after it started SEC play 0-5.

But despite playing much of its conference schedule without freshman guard Boogie Fland, who averaged north of 15 points a game (and will return from a thumb injury for Thursday’s game), the Razorbacks rallied. They kicked their season into gear with an upset win on the road at Kentucky, led by former Wildcats Calipari had brought along like forwards Adou Thiero (who is expected to miss the KU game due to injury) and Zvonimir Ivisic and guard D.J. Wagner, and ended up winning five of six games in a late-season stretch to earn their No. 10 seed.

Having studied Arkansas in detail prior to KU’s arrival in Providence on Tuesday evening, Self lauded several of the Razorbacks’ peripheral players, including freshman forward Billy Richmond III (who “provides a different gear” in terms of athleticism) and Tennessee transfer forward Jonas Aidoo (“obviously a low post presence”).

He saved some of his highest praise for 6-foot-10 junior forward Trevon Brazile, a former Missouri transfer.

“He’s been really good and he’s shot the heck out of it of late,” Self said, “but he’s just so active and so big and certainly gives smaller wings a big problem.”

Indeed, Brazile has embarked on a late-season hot streak in which he has shot 11-for-20 (55%) from deep across four games compared to 10-for-31 the rest of the year, and as a result has averaged 14.5 points and 10.8 rebounds. As Self noted, this recent uptick has allowed Arkansas to space the floor well despite their tall lineup.

Defensively, Arkansas has been one of the nation’s best shot-blocking teams, with 5.6 per game led by two from Ivisic.

It’s a multitalented group of Razorbacks that constitutes a tough draw for KU, but as Self said on Sunday, you inevitably get a tough draw when you’re a No. 7 seed.

Kansas Jayhawks (21-12, 11-9 Big 12) vs. Arkansas Razorbacks (20-13, 8-10 SEC)

• Amica Mutual Pavilion, Providence, Rhode Island, 6:10 p.m. Central Time

• Broadcast: CBS

• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KMXN FM 92.9)

Keep an eye out

Problematic perimeter: Brazile isn’t the only Razorback big man who presents a perimeter scoring threat (or has at least done so of late). Ivisic, a 7-footer from Croatia, has attempted 124 3s on the year, about as many as Wagner and not far behind Florida Atlantic transfer guard Johnell Davis, and he’s converted them at a strong 37.9% clip. As Self pointed out, the shooting acumen of these Arkansas forwards is going to draw KU’s centers, Dickinson and freshman Flory Bidunga, into awkward defensive positions to which they’re not accustomed.

Wing woes: Dickinson said on Sunday that the performance of KU’s junior transfer wings Rylan Griffen and AJ Storr could go a long way in determining if the Jayhawks advance. He called them “the X-factors.” However, they don’t necessarily enter the postseason in good form. Griffen, who dazzled for Alabama on its run to the Final Four last season, enters this postseason shooting 3-for-22 in his last four games and, in a larger sample size of his last 11, 17-for-71 (23.9%). That’s from the field, not just beyond the arc. Storr, meanwhile, struggled for essentially six weeks of conference play prior to an out-of-nowhere season-best 19-point showing in KU’s overtime victory over UCF in the Big 12 tournament, only to regress to 0-for-2 in nine minutes the following day against Arizona. It was Storr’s eighth game of the season in which he did not make a field goal, something he experienced just twice as a freshman at St. John’s and never as a sophomore at Wisconsin. If it happens again in March Madness, it could cost KU dearly.

Day to day: The temperamental nature of KU guard Shakeel Moore’s recurring foot soreness means that any overexertion could take him out of action for an extended period of time. He has missed a month of action after last playing against BYU on Feb. 18 and hasn’t played to his potential since late January. Could the NCAA Tournament finally mean a return to action for the fifth-year senior, who didn’t win a game in March Madness in a pair of appearances at Mississippi State? As Self said on Tuesday, his defense could certainly be a boon to KU against Arkansas guards Wagner and Fland, who ran roughshod over the Moore-less Jayhawks in October’s exhibition matchup in Fayetteville.

Off-kilter observation

Calipari’s coaching career began at Kansas, where he was an assistant for three total years under Ted Owens and Larry Brown.