PROVIDENCE, R.I. — John Calipari looked bemused as Arkansas’ Billy Richmond paused as he was leaving the elevated press conference table.

The freshman guard wanted to take the placard with his name and the Arkansas and March Madness logo as a souvenir, but he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to and started to leave without it.

“Billy,” Calipari called back to him. “Take it.”

Some mixture of sheepish and happy, Richmond took his card and grabbed the ones for Johnell Davis and Karter Knox too. Unique mementos of a special day after Arkansas’ 75-66 win over St. John’s vaulted them into the Sweet Sixteen.

Calipari’s unspoken message was a warm one. It was not only O.K. to cherish and mark this moment, but necessary.

The coach smiled as he turned back to the media in front to him.

John Calipari doesn’t need another feather in his cap that’s got plenty of ‘em.

He’s got a national championship. He’s taken three teams to the Final Four and has reached that milestone six times. He’s already in the Naismith Hall of Fame.

Calipari doesn’t have to win another anything to have his place in basketball history secured. But still this weekend mattered.

Calipari came into the 2024-25 season, his first at Arkansas, with something to prove for the first time in a really long time. The former UMass coach wasn’t fired at Kentucky, but he was certainly nudged out. After making the Wildcats elite again with a championship and four Final Fours, he’d been unable to continue to reach the difficult bar that he’d set.

The fans wanted him to be Rick Pitino, who took Kentucky to back-to-back championship games and left before he ever had a chance to backslide at all.

Kentucky fans said Calipari couldn’t win in the tournament anymore. They said his teams didn’t play their best basketball in March. They wanted him out. Rather than wait for the school to decide to pay his enormous buyout and push him out the door, Calipari jumped.

Arkansas was a pretty good lifeboat. For him, the Razorbacks were a school that cared about basketball and was willing to invest in being a championship-caliber program. For Arkansas, he was a better coach than they could usually hope to land.

It was an up-and-down, challenging first year filled with injuries and inconsistency. But they’ve been gathering momentum for weeks.

“If you really want to bust out, you have to take some knocks and then overcome them to know you can because the whole career they’re going to have in basketball is going to be that,” Calipari said. “Can you overcome the bad spells? Can you be so confident and fall back on your training? If you can’t, there’s no one picking you up. You got to pick yourself up.”

He was talking about his players, but could have been analyzing himself. He took the knocks on his way out at Kentucky and has picked himself up with this fresh start.

Arkansas didn’t exactly squeak into the tournament, but as a No. 10 seed, little was expected of them as they were matched against Kansas and Hall of Famer Bill Self. If they were good enough to beat the Jayhawks, they’d get No. 2 seed St. John’s and Hall of Famer Rick Pitino.

But three days into the tournament, the Razorbacks are still alive. Instead of cracking Arkansas, the gauntlet that was the SEC this year, steeled them. And now that the tournament has come around, Calipari’s team is playing its best basketball.

He outcoached Self and sent Kansas home in the first round for the first time since 2006. On Saturday, he bested Pitino.

That might have been the last time the two coaches ever face each other. They’re in different conferences and different regions of the country and Pitino is 72. Who knows how many years he’ll keep coaching?

St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino, right, gives Arkansas head coach John Calipari a pat on the back after a loss in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)AP

This magical St. John’s season ended in controversy, however. Pitino benched R.J. Luis, the Big East Player of the Year, down the stretch and then got snippy when a reporter dared to ask him to explain the shocking move.

Calipari, on the other hand, couldn’t wait to talk. He answered questions that weren’t asked of him and went off on tangents.

“This is as rewarding a year as I have had based on how far we have come,” Calipari said and later added. “To be where we are, still playing and still fighting and having fun. I’m enjoying it. Like I said, I’m not going to let anything faze me in this. Here we are, let’s have fun.”

When the moderator told him he was done, Calipari stood up. He didn’t take his own name placard, but like Richmond, he still seemed to know, this was a day worth commemorating for Arkansas.

And for him too.

• BETTING: Check out our MA sports betting guide, where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.