John Calipari will make his first trip back to Memphis as a visiting coach on October 27 when his Arkansas Razorbacks play Penny Hardaway’s Tigers in the St. Jude Tipoff Classic at the FedEx Forum.
The Memphis women’s team faces Vanderbilt as part of the doubleheader, with all proceeds from the games going to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The women’s game will tipoff at 5:30 p.m. CT, with the men’s game beginning at 8 p.m. It is the second-annual edition of the St. Jude Tipoff Classic, as the men faced North Carolina last year and the women played South Carolina in the preseason tune-up.
This year’s edition brings some added intrigue as Calipari has not been back to Memphis since he left to coach Kentucky in 2009. The Wildcats and Tigers never faced off during Calipari’s tenure in Lexington, but now the Hall of Famer will return to Memphis as the coach of the Razorbacks for the charity exhibition.
Calipari spent nine years as the coach at Memphis from 2000-09, leading the Tigers to six NCAA Tournament appearances, including a run to the national championship game in 2008. In his first season at Arkansas, the Razorbacks went 22-14 to make the NCAA Tournament as a 10-seed, making a run to the Sweet 16 before eventually falling to St. John’s.
Memphis, meanwhile, went 29-6 to earn a 5-seed in the NCAA tournament, but were upset in the first round by Colorado State. Hardaway’s squad will feature an entirely new roster for 2025-26, and they get to see where they stack up in this late October matchup with Arkansas before the regular season starts.
