March Madness ‘Region of Coaches’ opens with Calipari vs. Self. Pitino could be next for winner

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The stakes will be a lot lower this time around when Bill Self and John Calipari meet in March Madness.

Calipari, now with Arkansas, and Self, still with Kansas, will face each other in the NCAA Tournament for the third time on Thursday night in Providence for the opening round of the West Region. The others were both in the national championship game, with the winner walking away with the trophy.

"Playing someone I have respect for in this is hard," Calipari said on Wednesday as he prepared to coach in the tournament with his fourth school. "Both of us are trying to beat each other's brains in. Then you feel bad and then you move on thinking about the next game."

Calipari was with Memphis when the Tigers faced Kansas in the 2008 title game, and the Jayhawks came away with Self's first national championship. Four years later, Calipari earned his only title when Kentucky beat Kansas in the final.

The coaches have also split 12 regular-season games, and played a charity exhibition in October - with some key players missing - that Arkansas won 85-69. Self said he thinks less about the championship matchups and more about the preseason tuneup.

"I do know there are some things that they did in that exhibition game we would like to slow down and take away," he said. "Hopefully it benefited us by getting our butts kicked by them in that exhibition game that helped us prepare for this game."

The winner of Thursday night's game between seventh-seeded Kansas (21-12) and No. 10 seed Arkansas (20-13) will still have a long way to go before the confetti canons fire. And up next could be a matchup with another Hall of Famer in what has been dubbed the Region of Coaches.

Rick Pitino, who took Providence to the 1987 Final Four, is back in town with second-seeded St. John's (30-4) and a first-round matchup with No. 15 seed Omaha (22-12). Pitino and Calipari have a long history, with both coaching at Kentucky and then against each other in a cross-state rivalry when Calipari was in Lexington and Pitino was with Louisville.

"I would think there will be a little storyline with Kansas and Arkansas," Self said with a smile. “The potential of a Calipari-Pitino second-round game may put Kansas in a favorable light, to be honest with you.

"We've been talked about enough over the years and over time," he said. "I'm kind of looking forward to having people talk about others and maybe we can kind of sneak up on somebody."

Pitino has coached six college teams - and taken all of them to the NCAA Tournament, including a stint at Providence that included a run to the 1987 Final Four. He called it "one of my favorite coaching stints of all time," and said he continued to vacation in swanky Newport, Rhode Island.

"I have been blessed for a long period of time. Fifty-plus years of coaching," he said on Wednesday. "It's going to stop, so why not have a blast? Why not get the most out of it? Laugh, have fun, get great experiences."

Pitino parlayed his success at Providence into a New York Knicks job in the NBA and then spent eight years at Kentucky - including the 1996 national championship and two other trips to the Final Four - before a failed stint with the Boston Celtics. He spent 16 years at Louisville before scandals sent him to Greece to rebuild his career.

At 72, the fun has returned.

"Early years it wasn't like that. Trying to move up the ladder, you're trying to accomplish certain things - collectively with the team, and yourself," he said. "Now I don't have to move up the ladder. I don't have to look for another job. I don't have any dreams of coaching elsewhere, so it's just fun. You have fun with your guys. It's laughter, it's all the great things, but I do know it's coming to an end."

Texas Tech (25-8) guard Darrion Williams says he plans to play against No. 14 seed UNC Wilmington (27-7) on Thursday after dealing with a right leg injury in the Big 12 Tournament. Coach Grant McCasland seemed a bit less optimistic that fellow standout Chance McMillian will be on the floor as he tries to come back from an upper-body injury.

None of that matters to coach Takayo Siddle, whose Seahawks are preparing as if everyone will be available for the third-seeded Red Raiders when the teams meet in Wichita, Kansas.

"We've done it all year with teams in our league," Siddle said. "If they've had players that haven't played or are coming off injuries, we've always prepared as if they were going to play. That's exactly what we've done for Texas Tech."

Ben McCollum turned down several Division I job offers while winning four Division II titles at Northwest Missouri State. He finally accepted the job at Drake last April and, with a team stacked with transfers, went 30-3, swept the Missouri Valley regular-season and tournament titles and earned the No. 11 seed and a first-round matchup with No. 6 seed Missouri in Wichita.

Not surprisingly, McCollum's name has been mentioned for several more jobs, and one in particular: Iowa. The Hawkeyes fired coach Fran McCaffery last week, and McCollum was born in Iowa City and grew up in Storm Lake, Iowa.

"It's just the nature of having success. It's kind of like a gift and a curse," McCollum said of the rumors. "Over years you learn how to focus everything on the team that you have, and you know, that's what I'll continue to do."