Hogs Hoping for Improved Health as Kansas Comes Calling

Top-ranked Jayhawks are rich in history and boast veteran talent again this season

Arkansas guard Johnell Davis enjoyed the interaction during SEC Media Days in Birmingham, Alabama. / Vasha Hunt-Imagn Images

The first time I heard about Kansas' revered basketball program, the best-ever Jayhawk was playing in the NBA. That was way back when Wilt Chamberlain was the NBA's most feared player and Arkansas coach John Calipari was in second grade.

Calipari, who grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, got his first pair of coaching shoes as an associate assistant coach for Kansas, a campus just west of Kansas City. A student of the game and its tradition, Calipari knows and appreciates the rich history of the Jayhawks.

Arkansas' John Calipari got his coaching start at Kansas, a mere 42 years ago. / Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The reason I learned about KU hoops was my grade school friend's dad was the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four when Kansas won its first NCAA championship in 1952. That was Clyde Lovellette, who was the imposing but friendly 6-foot-9 sheriff where I grew up in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Lovellette was the first player to win an NCAA title, Olympic gold medal, and NBA championship. I didn't know all that when he was just Linda's really tall dad shooting hoops with us on the concrete court in the alley back in the late 1960s.

Kansas' tradition of talented big men was enhanced when Danny Manning carried the school to its second national championship in 1988. "Danny and the Miracles" were guided by Larry Brown, the only coach to win hoops championships in the NCAA and NBA.

Kansas has a lot of firsts, if you haven't noticed. But that's just the beginning of the story. The man who invented basketball was Kansas' first coach in 1898 and founded the school's program.

Dr. James Naismith, the only KU coach with a losing record, was an educator when he wrote the original 13 rules of basketball while inventing a winter indoor game for young men at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891. It's no coincidence that's where the Hall of Fame is located.

Naismith coached Phog Allen, who was the KU bench boss for 37 years while winning two unofficial national titles (prior to the NCAA tournament) and the one with Dean Smith as a reserve player and Lovellette, the three-time All-American as the driving force. The Jayhawks' basketball arena, Allen Fieldhouse, is named for the legendary coach. A "Beware of the Phog" banner hangs at one end of the captivating, old arena.

I spent three days in Lawrence three decades ago to watch one game and write a half-dozen stories. I profiled Fayetteville High alum Nick Bradford, who was playing for Kansas; Jayhawks coach Roy Williams; Oklahoma State coach (and former head Hog) Eddie Sutton; and Kansas All-American Paul Pierce.

Except for Bradford, everybody named thus far in this article -- Chamberlain, Lovellette, Manning, Brown, Allen, Smith, Williams, Sutton and Pierce -- are enshrined in the hoops Hall of Fame. What about Naismith, you ask? Appropriately, the Hall is named after him.

Which brings us to Friday night's main event when two more Hall of Famers meet in a "friendly," as they say in soccer. The Hogs' Calipari will send his first bunch of fightin' Razorbacks against Bill Self's Jayhawks, ranked No. 1 in preseason polls.

The exhibition game, which will benefit charity, tips at 8 p.m. on the SEC Network. The Hogs, beset by injuries after grueling preseason practices, are expected to have at least a few players unavailable.

Still, it's almost destination TV. It's Calipari's first appearance on the sidelines as boss Hog. It's the first time Self has ever brought a team to Bud Walton Arena. It's the first look at how the Hogs match up against another team, and this is the Jayhawks' incredibly impressive roster.

Self has won two national championships, in 2008 and 2022, the first coming at Calipari's expense when the Jayhawks erased a nine-point deficit in the final two minutes, including a buzzer-beating 3 to force overtime, to beat Memphis. Calipari left Memphis back a year later to take the Kentucky job, where he earned a ring in 2012.

Calipari has assembled a talented mixture of 5-star freshmen, highly recruited Kentucky players who followed him to Fayetteville, one Hog holdover in Trevon Brazile, and several studs from the transfer portal.

Fans are anxious to see the likes of freshmen Boogie Fland, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond III, along with portal transfers Johnell Davis from Florida Atlantic and Jonas Aidoo from Tennessee. D.J. Wagner, Adou Thiero and Zvonimir Ivišić left Kentucky to further enhance their skills and careers under the tutelage of Calipari. Not all are expected to play against Kansas but eventually, and collectively, they could be a force in the SEC and post-season.

D.J. Wagner talks with coach John Calipari last season when they were at Kentucky. The Hall of Fame coach and dynamic guard now have Arkansas fans excited about this season. / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Friday's exhibition allows the players to face somebody new, under the bright lights, in front of fans. It'll give the available Hogs time to work together, learn each other a bit more, and find out just how far behind they are compared to the nation's top team.

My guess is they're quite a ways behind, mostly because of injuries and Kansas being a veteran squad. The Jayhawks are led by sixth-year star guard Dajuan Harris and Hunter Dickinson, a burly big man with soft hands, passing instincts, and legit 3-point range to impress the pro scouts.

Kansas center Hunter Dickinson (1) dunks on Baylor Bears forward Josh Ojianwuna (15) in Waco, Texas last season. / Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

Whether Dickinson and his mates are good enough to cop another crown for Kansas will be decided in the spring. By then, the Hogs will probably (hopefully?) be healthy and cohesive enough on both ends of the court to give the Jayhawks all they can handle should the Hall of Fame coaches meet again when it mattes most.

Until then, Calipari will continue to teach, prod and push his players toward excellence, both individually and collectively. Arkansas is No. 16 in the preseason AP poll, just about right for a team with talent but a lot to prove. First opportunity to make a statement, no matter how short-handed, comes against history-rich Kansas.

HOGS FEED:

• Book Out on Defense Puts Season, Pittman's Career in Balance

• Majority of Arkansas roster about to experience cowbells for first time

• Maybe it's time a freshman running back gets his shot against Mississippi State

• Is it time to start thinking about a change with Razorbacks' quarterback? | 4th and 5

• Razorback Basketball well represented for NBA opening week

• Subscribe and follow us on YouTube
• Follow HogsSI on X and Facebook