Arkansas forward Jonas Aidoo (9) celebrates with Trevon Brazile (4) after defeating Kansas after their game in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)2025-03-21T01:45:50Z Follow APs full coverage of March Madness.Get the AP Top 25 mens college basketball poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) John Calipari got past a familiar foe to put himself and the coachs new school back on the winning side in March.Jonas Aidoo scored 22 points to help 10th-seeded Arkansas to a 79-72 opening-round NCAA Tournament victory over No. 7 seed Kansas on Thursday night in the latest meeting between two of college basketballs winningest coaches.Johnell Davis added 18 points, including some crucial late free throws, to help Calipari to his first tournament victory with the Razorbacks. Freshman standout Boogie Fland played for the first time since having right thumb surgery in January and scored six points in 24 minutes.We have to rely on everyone. When youre down in numbers, everyones got to help you, Calipari said. Thats where we are. The second half, we didnt shoot it well. We didnt make 3s, but we made the ones that mattered and we made free throws. Arkansas will face No. 2 seed St. Johns led by another national title-winning coach, Rick Pitino in the second round of the West Region on Saturday.Zeke Mayo had 18 points for Kansas (21-13), which has made 35 straight NCAA Tournaments and hadnt lost in the first round since 2006 coach Bill Selfs third season at the school. AJ Storr finished with 15 points and Hunter Dickinson added 11 points and nine rebounds. Thursdays matchup was the third March Madness meeting between two of the four active win leaders in mens college basketball. Calipari is second (876), with Self fourth (831) on the list. Both previous meetings were in the national championship game, with each winning once. Despite having a third consecutive tournament appearance end before the Sweet 16 since Kansas last national title in 2022, Self doesnt believe the Jayhawks are in decline. Weve got to reevaluate on how we do things and you cant afford misses, Self said. In todays time, theres going to be schools that do a great job, but still theres an element of luck involved, I think more now than there was even before. Kansas erased an 11-point second-half deficit and nudged ahead 65-64 on a follow shot by Storr with less than six minutes remaining.The Jayhawks kept the lead until Aidoo connected on a pair of free throws to put the Razorbacks back in front. Arkansas got a stop on the other end and then got a 3-pointer by Davis that gave it a 71-67 cushion with less than two minutes on the clock.Arkansas edge was down to 71-69 before Davis dropped in a pair of free throws. Dickinson missed a 3 on Kansas next trip and Arkansas added two more free throws. The Jayhawks got it back down to 75-72 on a 3-pointer by Rylan Griffen with 13 seconds left. The Razorbacks called back-to-back timeouts trying to get the ball inbounds. They finally did and Davis calmly sank two free throws to help close it out.We believed in the moment, Davis said. Coach always stayed on us, pushed us, even when we were down and he helped us get through everything.TakeawaysArkansas: Posted its first tournament victory since reaching the Sweet 16 in 2023 under then-coach Eric Musselman.Kansas: Kansas fell to 47-6 in first-round games. Adams injuredKansas forward KJ Adams limped off the court with 3:10 to play with what Self said is an apparent Achilles tendon injury. Adams had 13 points and four rebounds.Were hoping for the best tomorrow. Im not sure its going to be great news, though, Self said. Its one thing to lose the game but to see him potentially lose a year on top of the game, you know, thats a pretty big blow.Up nextThe Razorbacks face Pitino, the active coach with the most wins. He was also Caliparis longtime rival when he was with Louisville and Calipari coached at Kentucky.___AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. KYLE HIGHTOWER Hightower covers Boston sports for The Associated Press and also contributes on coverage of sports gambling and Olympic basketball. twitter mailto