Winners/losers from first weekend of the NCAA tournament feature John Calipari, Darryn Peterson, Big Ten and blue bloods

The first weekend of the NCAA tournament is in the books, and there are distinct winners and losers.

Among the big winners are the Big Ten and John Calipari, who’s guided Arkansas to its second Sweet 16 in his second season as head coach. Kentucky, meanwhile, is headed home.

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As for future lottery pick Darryn Peterson, he didn’t exactly make the final impression at Kansas that NBA executives were hoping to see. Let’s take a look at the biggest winners and losers from the first two rounds of tournament play:

Winner: John Calipari

John Calipari’s exit from Kentucky marked a seismic shift in the college basketball landscape.

The game’s winningest program parted with one of the most successful coaches of his his era, who’d opened up a pipeline of elite talent to Lexington and led the Wildcats to a national championship.

But a prolonged lack of tournament success that included a nine-year Final Four drought made the relationship untenable. And the two parted ways after a first-round exit in the 2024 NCAA tournament.

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Fast-forward two years, and Calipari’s winning the breakup. Calipari took some of his talent with him to his new job with SEC rival Arkansas and led the Razorbacks to the Sweet 16 in year one. Now he’s got Arkansas back in the Sweet 16 with a star point guard in Darius Acuff Jr. leading the way as arguably the best player in the tournament through two games.

A future NBA lottery pick with top-5 upside who was named first-team All-America as a freshman, Acuff is going scorched earth in tournament play. In wins over Hawaii and High Point, Acuff’s averaged 30 points, 6.5 assists and 1 steal per game. He’s shooting 49% from the floor and 5 of 11 (45.5%) from 3. He’s the kind of talent Kentucky came to take for granted during Calipari’s reign.

Now he’s at Arkansas in the tournament’s second weekend. And Kentucky’s gone home after a listless second-round loss to Iowa State that will have head coach Mark Pope on the hot seat…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mens-college-basketball/breaking-news/article/winnerslosers-from-first-weekend-of-the-ncaa-tournament-feature-john-calipari-darryn-peterson-big-ten-and-blue-bloods-045419512.html

Author : Jason Owens,Nick Bromberg

Publish date : 2026-03-23 04:54:00

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