The 4 Nations Face-Off rosters were announced in December, the captains were named this week and now the tournament organizers have revealed what the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden will wear in February.

The jerseys, designed by Fanatics with input from the NHL and NHL Players’ Association, were unveiled on Friday.

Unlike NHL games, in which a player wears a different color jersey depending on whether the team is home or away, each country will wear the same jersey for each game.

The best-on-best international tournament will be held from Feb. 12-20 at Montreal’s Bell Centre and Boston’s TD Garden. Here’s a closer look at the jerseys:

USA 4 Nations Face-Off jersey

Drawing inspiration from the U.S. flag, the jersey has navy blue as the primary color, with red and white striping on the sleeves and the base. Each shoulder has a white star patch, similar to what was worn during the 1980 ‘Miracle on Ice’ Lake Placid Olympics. There are 13 subtle stripes on the chest and back to represent to original 13 colonies. “E Pluribus Unum” from The Great Seal of the United States is on the jersey’s sleeves.

Canada 4 Nations Face-Off jersey

Canada’s jersey is red with maple white colored accents. Its front crest has a 13-point maple leaf, inspired by the first representation of what would become the Canadian flag. An arced Canada wordmark sits inside the leaf, and the sleeves feature debossed maple leaf vines.

Finland 4 Nations Face-Off jersey

This is the only white jersey at the tournament, which represents the ‘country’s vast winter landscape.’ The Suomi on the front is the Finnish word for Finland. There’s a modern take on the national coat of arms, a crowned lion set against the Finnish sky. Convallaria Majalis, the country’s national flower, is debossed on the sleeves and on the interior neckline.

Sweden 4 Nations Face-Off jersey

The yellow and blue jersey has a modern redesign of the Tre Kronor (three crowns), which is historically worn by the nation’s hockey teams in international competitions. A stripe design on the jersey’s sleeves looks like the Swedish flag.

4 Nations Face-Off schedule, TV

(Times p.m. ET)

• Wednesday, Feb. 12:  Canada vs. Sweden at Montreal, 8, TNT
• Thursday, Feb. 13: USA vs. Finland at Montreal, 8, ESPN
• Saturday, Feb. 15: Finland vs. Sweden at Montreal, 1, ABC
• Saturday, Feb. 15: USA vs. Canada at Montreal, 8, ABC
• Monday, Feb. 17: Canada vs. Finland at Boston, 1, TNT
• Monday, Feb. 17:  Sweden vs. USA at Boston, 8, TNT
• Thursday, Feb. 20: Championship game at Boston, 8, ESPN

The countdown is on with Alex Ovechkin just 19 goals from overtaking Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s career goal leader – a mark that once seemed unsurmountable and earned Gretzky the nickname The Great One.

The Great Eight, as the Washington Capital is sometimes called, began the season 41 goals behind Gretzky’s 894. But, perhaps, numbers fall short of conveying how dominant the two players’ careers have been.

From goals to points, our series of charts below — based on NHL and Hockey Reference data — show the gulf that Gretzky and Ovechkin have created between themselves and their contemporaries as they solidified their positions as two of the league’s greats.

Three NHL players scored more than 800 goals in their careers

It’s interesting to note in the chart below, how one player has stood out from others of their generations since the 1950s when Maurice Richard became the NHL’s first 400-goal scorer — and later first 500-goal scorer. A couple decades later Gordie Howe finished his 33-year career with 801 goals.

Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them.

So how did Gretzky and Ovechkin get there?

Combine consistent all-star play with health and longevity, and their career milestones became more plausible. Gretzky lost a large portion of his 1992-93 season to a back injury, while Ovechkin lost 16 games this year to a broken leg. Otherwise, both stayed on the ice during the prime of their careers.

How many goals does Ovechkin have in his career

Both Ovechkin and Gretzky averaged about 49 goals per season, but some might say Ovechkin is still in the prime of his career, considering the relatively consistent trajectory of his scoring.

So who is better, Gretzky or Ovechkin? Here are a few more points to help you decide.

Whether it’s Jordan vs. LeBron or Brady vs. Mahomes, comparisons between great players of different eras can often be a fool’s errand. That said, a couple key differences in the eras:

Goalies’ gear covers more of the goal today

Only a few years separate Ovechkin and Gretzky, but like any other sport, hockey equipment evolved during these four-plus decades. Consider how different goalies’ pads and mitts were, below, during Gretzky’s and Ovechkin’s first seasons. To be fair, goalies wore more modern-day uniforms in Gretzky’s final seasons, and two years before Ovechkin entered the NHL, the length of goalie pads was limited to 38 inches.

NHL scoring at its highest levels in Gretzky era

Some will argue that Ovechkin is a greater goal scorer because scoring has become more challenging. Gretzky’s early years were played when the NHL averaged the highest average points per game. Of 25 players who scored 65 goals or more in a season, 19 were in Gretzky’s era. That includes four seasons where Gretzky scored 71 or more. Ovechkin tallied 65 once.

Gretzky has conceded that he may soon lose his scoring title in the coming months.

‘It’s just a matter of time, whether it’s late this year, early next year, whenever,’ Gretzky said about his record this past fall, according to the NHL. ‘I mean, he’s a great player. He’s a great goal scorer.’

But the measure of a great hockey player isn’t only how many goals they rack up. Consider how Ovechkin compares to his contemporaries on career points – goals and assists added together.

How many career points has Ovechkin earned

In his 20 years in the NHL, Gretzky’s play contributed to more goals for his teams than any player by far. In addition to leading the league in goals five times, he led the NHL in assists 16 times, leading to a career points record that may never be eclipsed.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby joined the NHL in the 2005-06 season with Ovechkin. Crosby has assisted on nearly 50% more goals than Ovechkin has, putting him dozens of points ahead. Below, the top 50 players in career points. Only four have played this season:

How old is Alex Ovechkin and other milestones

Should Ovechkin run out of regular-season games this year, he’ll turn 40 in September with one more year on his current Capitals’ contract. In addition to the career goal record, he’ll have more chances to pile up career statistics. A couple of them:

Points: He’ll likely surpass Phil Esposito’s career points mark of 1,590 this season, putting him 11th in the category. Joe Sakic, 10th in points at 1,641, could be within reach next season.

Goalies scored on: Ovechkin already leads in this category with 179 goalies in his 20 years. Less than 9% of those who have played in the league have even scored 179 or more goals.

How many goals does Ovechkin have this year

How many empty net goals has Ovechkin made

After returning from his broken leg in late December, Ovechkin scored his 17th goal of the season in his first game back, collecting his 62nd empty-net goal of his career.

Empty-net goals are perk of playing for one of the top teams in the NHL for several years, and Ovechkin has taken advantage of empty nets more often than any player in league history, according to Statmuse. He topped Gretzky’s 56 empty netters last season when he tallied three.

Rounding the top five of empty-net goal scorers, according to Statmuse: Marian Hossa, 40, Brad Marchand, 38, and Sidney Crosby, 36.

The NCAA and a coalition of states led by Tennessee reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the NCAA, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced Friday.

The settlement is a deal in principle that will protect student-athletes’ name, image and likeness rights during the recruiting process and prohibit the NCAA from bringing back its NIL recruiting ban, Skrmetti said.

“We’ve been fighting hard to protect Tennessee student-athletes,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “Last year, we blocked the NCAA’s unlawful enforcement against Tennessee students and schools, and now this settlement in principle lays the groundwork for a permanent solution.”

This conclusion seemed inevitable.

On Feb. 23, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in the case, which suspended the NCAA’s NIL rules and indicated that the NCAA likely would lose the case.

It also emphasized the need for reform in how college athletes are lawfully paid. Since then, prospective and current college athletes have enjoyed latitude in negotiating and signing NIL deals with little fear of NCAA penalties.

Another federal antitrust lawsuit, House vs. NCAA, could bring some stability to the situation when revenue sharing arrives in college sports as early as July. Universities will be allowed to pay athletes directly, up to $21 million for athletes in all sports per year, from its revenue coffers.

But NIL will still exist, although any regulations around it are still up for debate.

Here’s how Tennessee vs. NCAA suit reached this point

This case shook the college sports world in early 2024, beginning with an NCAA investigation into UT athletics over allegations of breaking NIL rules and seemingly ending with the NCAA’s pause of those NIL rules.

On Jan. 31, 2024, Skrmetti sued the NCAA to loosen its stranglehold over NIL. That led to a showdown in a federal courthouse in Greeneville, Tennessee, two weeks later.

A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction, which suspended NCAA rules on NIL benefits for athletes. And on March 1, the NCAA paused all investigations related to NIL, including its probe into UT.

Since then, the case had almost disappeared from public view, especially after the NCAA retreated. But the fight had quietly prolonged for months through a series of court filings to reframe the argument.

Other states joined the suit alongside Tennessee and Virginia, the initial plaintiffs, and the NCAA never gained significant ground. The case seemingly ended on Friday.

But the debate over paying college athletes is far from over.

Adam Sparks is the Tennessee football beat reporter. Emailadam.sparks@knoxnews.com. X, formerly known as Twitter@AdamSparks. Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.

Even now, five decades into his trailblazing career as a sports agent and powerbroker in NFL circles, Leigh Steinberg is still rolling with a can-do spirit and big visions.

Steinberg, 75, recently established a concussion foundation bearing his name that he hopes will be a difference-maker supporting emerging approaches in the medical community for the treatment of head injuries.

“It will raise awareness and be a clearinghouse for people to understand what the dangers are, as far as head injuries are concerned,” Steinberg told USA TODAY Sports of his foundation. “It will be a research tool for trying to find better solutions and more knowledge.”

It’s a noble cause. As much as the NFL has done in recent years with rules changes designed to take the head out of the game, policies that reduce contact during practices, concussion protocols and safer equipment – factors that contributed to the NFL reporting Thursday that through the end of the 2024 regular season it had the lowest concussion numbers for a campaign since the NFL began tracking data in 2015 – it remains a bruising sport where concussions happen.

Steinberg remains wary of risks to long-term health.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

“It’s one thing to know that football breaks down joints and someone who turns 45 and bends over to pick up their child will have aches and pains,” he said. “It’s another thing not to identify that child. In other words, you’re talking about the brain.”

That portrayal surely comes with shock value. Yet Steinberg’s concern is amplified whenever cases come to the forefront that reveal chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease that experts link to repetitive head trauma.

In early January, the family of former Tennessee Titans tight end Frank Wycheck, who died at 52 in December 2023, announced that researchers at Boston University’s CTE Center confirmed that Wycheck’s brain tested positive for CTE.

In a statement, Deanna Wycheck Szabo said that she hoped the CTE diagnosis for her father would “bring awareness, increased intervention, education, and support for NFL alumni and their families related to CTE.”

Clearly, that aligns with the mission Steinberg – who along with Chris Cabott represents Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes – expresses for his foundation.

Although he gives the NFL credit for the cultural shift in addressing concussions that began well over a decade ago, he sounds determined to put energy into medical advances.

“For years, the thought was that once there was a traumatic brain injury, it just went down a slippery slope that led to Alzheimer’s, premature senility, Parkinson’s, CTE and depression,” Steinberg said. “Now there’s a process called rTMS (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation), where, through the theory of neuroplasticity, they can actually rewire the brain. Get those connections back.

“That is stunning. And it’s the kind of medical breakthrough, treatment breakthrough, that is happening. So, this foundation will raise money to promote more research.”

Of course, Steinberg, who has represented a record eight No. 1 overall NFL draft picks during his career, isn’t a doctor. And, citing professional ethics, he would not comment on challenges and scrutiny that a former client, Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, has faced in recovery from multiple concussions since 2022, including another one this season.

Yet he doesn’t hesitate to hail the potential of stem cells, red light therapy and the use of hyperbaric oxygen chambers as treatment options. For his foundation, he said he is aligning with neurologists and other medical experts for an advisory board that will also include several retired players, including Hall of Famers Warren Moon (a longtime client) and Earl Campbell.

And the day before Super Bowl 59, Steinberg will host his 20th Brain Summit before his annual Super Bowl party. Steinberg’s party has long been a hot ticket on the social calendar during Super Bowl week as it typically attracts a mix of celebrities from the entertainment world and high-profile NFL figures. Now it appears his event (at the New Orleans Jazz Museum) will also serve as ample opportunity to get the word out about his foundation.

“This is not simply a pro football issue,” Steinberg said. “It’s a college football issue. A high school football issue. A soccer issue. A hockey issue. It’s anything that involves collision.”

No, this is hardly new ground for Steinberg, who has also rebounded from personal and professional challenges that include a divorce, bankruptcy, a split with former partner David Dunn and alcoholism – as he approaches the 15th anniversary of his sobriety.

More than 30 years ago, moved by concussions suffered by several of his clients – including high-profile cases that involved eventual Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Steve Young – Steinberg held his first concussion seminar in Newport Beach, California.

Aikman, Young, Moon, Drew Bledsoe and Rob Johnson were among the attendees, “taking notes,” Steinberg recalled, “listening to neurologists talk about the risks and the state of knowledge at the time.”

A generation ago, that concussion seminar was cutting edge. And especially because it was organized by an agent, rather than the players union. It was before the discovery of CTE. Before a class-action lawsuit was filed by former players against the NFL in 2012, which led to a $1 billion settlement in 2015. Before the NFL Players Association became passionate about the issue, spearheaded by now-former executive director DeMaurice Smith. Before the league instituted concussion protocols and dozens of safety measures.

While Steinberg acknowledges that much has changed since his first concussion seminar in 1994, he said he is encouraged that more progress will occur “by relying on the best science.”

And he is hardly shy when it comes to preaching on the topic.

“I define the role of an agent not simply as putting dollars in the bank book of a player,” Steinberg said. “Part of the fiduciary responsibility is trying to ensure the long-term health of players, to think about what the quality of their lives will be when they retire.”

Which might ultimately fuel quite a legacy for a legendary agent.

Follow Jarrett Bell on X @JarrettBell.

MEDLEY, Fla. – One of the busiest weeks in the WNBA offseason will gain more steam as Unrivaled women’s basketball kicks off its third weekend on Friday night.

Then, Unrivaled’s undefeated teams will fight for first place when Napheesa Collier and the Lunar Owls face Kayla McBride, Tiffany Hayes and the Laces in the second game at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Tennis star Coco Gauff, an Unrivaled investor, is in attendance sitting next to league founder Breanna Stewart.

Here’s everything you need to know about tonight’s Unrivaled games, and stay tuned here for live updates from USA TODAY Sports:

Unrivaled score: Laces 20, Lunar Owls 17 after first quarter

Tiffany Hayes scored nine points, and Kayla McBride added five points to help the Laces take a 20-17 lead over the Lunar Owls in the first quarter.

Napheesa Collier has eight points, while Allisha Gray has five points for the Lunar Owls.

Unrivaled final score: Phantom 75, Rose 63

MEDLEY, Fla. – Sabrina Ionescu scored 32 points, Satou Sabally scored the game-winning 3-pointer and the Phantom secured their second win of the season with a 75-63 win over the Rose in the first of two games on Friday night.

Ionescu was 7 of 10 from the 3-point line, adding eight rebounds and seven assists to help the Phantom improve to 2-3 with the victory. It was Ionescu’s first game back after missing a he Phantom’s two games last week to attend the NBA Paris Games.

“I was trying to get open, and get great looks,” Ionescu said after the game.

Sabally finished with 13 points and six rebounds on a night she was traded to the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, according to ESPN. Brittney Griner also added 14 points and four rebounds in the Phantom win.

Azurá Stevens had 19 points, Chelsea Gray scored 16 points with six assists, and Angel Reese had 13 points with seven rebounds in the loss for the Rose, now 1-4 in Unrivaled.

Unrivaled score: Phantom 62, Rose 54 after third quarter

Target winning score: 73

Sabrina Ionescu is up to 24 points, including a 3-point floater at the end of the third quarter, to help the Phantom take a 62-54 lead over the Rose. The target winning score is 73 points.

Azurá Stevens has 16 points, and Chelsea Gray has 14 points and six assists for the Rose.

Unrivaled halftime score: Phantom 42, Rose 36 after second quarter

Sabrina Ionescu connected on three 3-pointers, scoring all 13 of her points in the second quarter, and the Phantom have a 42-36 lead over the Rose at halftime.

Satou Sabally has 10 points, while Brittney Griner has eight points and four rebounds, and Ionescu has four assists.

Azurá Stevens leads the Rose with 15 points, Chelsea Gray has 12 points and five assists, and Angel Reese has eight points after the first half.

Unrivaled score: Rose 19, Phantom 18 after first quarter

Chelsea Gray has seven points and Azurá Stevens has six points for the Rose, up 19-18, over the Phantom after the first quarter.

Brittney Griner has six points, while Satou Sabally and Natasha Cloud each have five points for the Phantom. Sabrina Ionescu leads all players with four assists.

How to watch Unrivaled on Friday night

Unrivaled is available on cable television on TNT in the United States, and TSN+ in Canada. It is also available to live stream on Max, YouTube and Sling TV.

Lunar Owls (4-0) vs. Laces (4-0) preview

Collier, the Minnesota Lynx star and Unrivaled league co-founder, has been Unrivaled’s best player, averaging 28.5 points and 13 rebounds during the first two weeks.

Along with Allisha Grey and Skylar Diggins-Smith, the Lunar Owls are off to a 4-0 start and lead the league in scoring (78.0 points per game) and assists (14.3) with the fewest turnovers (4.8).

McBride (25.5 ppg) and Hayes (20.0) are the second- and third-leading scorers in Unrivaled for the Laces, who also started 4-0. They’re second in scoring (75.8), but first in rebounding (39.0).

Rose (1-3) vs. Phantom (1-3) preview

The Rose and Phantom each got their first wins of the season last weekend over the Mist, but both have 1-3 records.

Reese had 17 points and seven rebounds in her last outing in a 71-66 loss to the Laces last week, while Griner and Satou Sabally each had 29 points in their win over the Mist last week.

Ionescu will return to action after attending the NBA Paris Games last week.

Sabally is the sixth-leading scorer in Unrivaled (17.8 ppg), while Kahleah Copper leads the Rose (16.0 ppg, ranked 11th).

Angel Reese has new McDonald’s deal

Starting Feb. 10, you can order the Angel Reese Special, which includes a BBQ Bacon Quarter Pounder with Cheese topped with a new BBQ sauce, plus French fries and a drink.

WNBA free agency, offseason takes flight

The Unrivaled games come during a blockbuster week where several WNBA players will be on the move next season.

• Griner agreed to a free agent deal with the Atlanta Dream after 11 seasons with the Phoenix Mercury.
• The Laces’ Alyssa Thomas was traded from the Connecticut Sun after 11 seasons to the Mercury.
• A three-team trade featuring Jewell Loyd, Kelsey Plum and several 2025 WNBA draft picks started the frenzy.

What is Unrivaled?

Six teams with 36 of the best women’s basketball players in the world, including Sabrina Ionescu and Brittney Griner, will compete in the 3-on-3, full court games for the next nine weeks.

Where is Unrivaled playing games?

Games will be played at Wayfair Arena in Medley, Florida, which is in the Miami metropolitan area, about 7 miles from Miami International Airport.

Unrivaled team names and rosters

• Laces: Stefanie Dolson, Tiffany Hayes, Natisha Hiedeman (relief player contract), Kate Martin, Kayla McBride, Alyssa Thomas, Jackie Young.
• Lunar Owls: Shakira Austin, Napheesa Collier, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Allisha Gray, Courtney Williams, Cameron Brink (IR).
• Mist: DiJonai Carrington, Aaliyah Edwards, Rickea Jackson, Jewell Loyd, NaLyssa Smith (relief player contract), Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot.
• Phantom: Natasha Cloud, Brittney Griner, Sabrina Ionescu, Marina Mabrey, Satou Sabally, Katie Lou Samuelson.
• Rose: Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Lexie Hull, Angel Reese, Azura Stevens, Brittney Sykes.
• Vinyl: Aliyah Boston, Rae Burrell, Jordin Canada, Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard, Arike Ogunbowale.

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Around the state of Kentucky this week, the water cooler speculation has centered almost entirely on the reception John Calipari will receive Saturday night when he walks into Rupp Arena wearing the Arkansas Razorbacks logo. 

Nearly 10 months after one of the most awkward sports divorces in recent memory — one that has, to this point, worked out far better for Kentucky than its former coach of 15 seasons — even Calipari does not expect to be welcomed warmly right now. 

“My guess is I’m going to get booed,” Calipari said this week on his weekly radio show, with a sarcastic laugh that betrayed his discomfort. “But that’s all part of it. Shoot, you get booed. I’ve done this so long, I’ll tell ya, I’ve got bazooka holes in my body. So when you shoot arrows, it doesn’t even hit skin. But it’ll be interesting. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to coaching, but to walk in, the vibe, I don’t know how I’m going to take it to be honest with you.”

But there’s one big reason why Kentucky fans should try their best to be magnanimous, and it has nothing to do with the 2012 national championship he brought them or the four Final Four trips or all the NBA stars of the Calipari era who are forever associated with Kentucky. 

If Calipari had simply returned for his 16th season, Kentucky would not be ranked No. 12 and enjoying its Era of Good Feelings under Mark Pope, who has leaned all the way into the unique and sometimes overheated relationship between this basketball program and Big Blue Nation.

Instead, Kentucky would look almost exactly like Arkansas does now: A team languishing at 1-6 in the SEC, almost certain to miss the NCAA men’s tournament, with a defiantly aloof coach trying to stave off a nuclear meltdown the likes of which college basketball has never seen. 

“If he was having that year here,” said Matt Jones, host of the thermometer-setting Kentucky Sports Radio show, “it would have been the worst thing. It would have been ugly and awful for everyone involved. It would have been a terrible, terrible scene. So it was best for everybody that did not happen.” 

It is, however, the unavoidable sliding doors moment that took place on the afternoon of April 7 when word began to circulate around the Final Four in Phoenix that Calipari had legitimate interest in leaving Kentucky for Arkansas. 

A lot of people, even some close to Kentucky, didn’t really believe it. Though 2024 had ended in another tournament debacle, with the Wildcats losing to No. 14 seed Oakland in the first round, Calipari wasn’t getting fired. Despite four years of stagnation, frustration and a growing sense around the program that it was just over, Kentucky wasn’t going to pay his $35 million buyout and Calipari wasn’t going to quit.

After a few days of uncertainty following the end of Kentucky’s season, Calipari and athletics director Mitch Barnhart had sat down for a joint interview that made clear he was coming back. It seemed definitive.  

And even if Coach Cal was going to leave … Arkansas? A program that had been a rung or two down on the college basketball hierarchy? Another SEC school, ensuring he’d have to visit Rupp Arena every other year? 

On the surface, it didn’t make sense. But a few hours after the rumors emerged, the deal was done.

Almost immediately, Kentucky fans knew two things: First, that everyone from current players to recruits to longtime staff members would be going with him — a completely clean break with the Calipari era. But also that his shadow would lurk in the background as long as he stayed at Arkansas, every game a reminder of the team and program Calipari would have had at Kentucky. 

All of that comes to roost on Saturday. Among Arkansas’ regular nine-man rotation (including injured freshman point guard Boogie Fland), three played at Kentucky last year and three were committed to Kentucky. There would have been some differences on the margins, but it’s essentially the same team Calipari would have put on the floor if he had stayed at Kentucky. 

That alone illustrates why he had to leave. 

And now, less than a year into his tenure, the utter failure of this season at Arkansas is raising questions around college basketball about whether this experiment is going to work at all.

There aren’t a lot of excuses for why Arkansas is this mediocre, ranked outside the top 50 in the KenPom.com efficiency ratings with an offense that was No. 100 nationally as of Thursday. 

It doesn’t help that the SEC is tougher than ever, with a strong possibility that 12 or 13 teams could get NCAA tournament bids. 

But the allure of Calipari, just as it was for Kentucky in 2009 when they poached him from Memphis, has always been his ability to fix programs with an immediate talent infusion. Arkansas spared no expense, either on Calipari ($7 million per year) or the roster. In addition to the players Calipari brought from Kentucky, he added senior big man Jonas Aidoo, who started for Tennessee last year, and fifth-year guard Johnell Davis, who was a huge factor in Florida Atlantic’s run to the Final Four two years ago. 

It is, by and large, the team Calipari wanted. It’s just not working, much to the surprise of a state and a booster class that forked over millions of dollars because it viewed Calipari as immediate entry to higher status in the basketball ecosystem. 

‘We live in a ‘fix it right now’ world, and Cal knows it and that fan base knows it,” said analyst Jimmy Dykes, who will call Saturday’s game for ESPN and has strong connections to Arkansas where he played in the early 1980s. “He was hired with the expectation that ‘We’re going to win right now,’ and it hasn’t gone that way.

“They have individual pieces that are good players. Those pieces have not fit nearly as well as they have to fit at this level. I think there is surprise, almost shock, that this is where they are.”

If Arkansas loses Saturday and plays out the rest of this season on its current trajectory, there will be a strong impulse to write off the Arkansas-Calipari marriage as a failure — and a lot of glee from the majority of Kentucky’s fan base that had tired of him by the end. 

It’s probably too early for that. As ESPN’s Fran Fraschilla said, Arkansas has commitments from a pair of top-10 guards in Meleek Thomas and Darius Acuff Jr., who are “better than anyone on the roster right now.” Given Arkansas’ large NIL war chest, the Razorbacks will no doubt be among the country’s most talented teams for the foreseeable future.

And according to one person close with Calipari, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on his behalf, there is no chance he would walk away — not this year or anytime soon. His ego simply wouldn’t allow it, and the financial incentives to stay are too great. 

But how long will Arkansas’ patience last? 

The issue for Calipari, who turns 66 in the next couple weeks, is that the Arkansas experience so far has been a slightly exaggerated mirror image of what doomed him in his final years at Kentucky.

Rosters that didn’t fit together. Highly touted freshmen who didn’t live up to their billing. Lack of shooting and playmaking skill, making it difficult to pull the offense out of the mud. Not enough answers or accountability from the head coach, particularly after first-round NCAA upsets to Oakland last year and Saint Peter’s in 2022. 

That’s why it frustrates Jones when media members or former coaches don’t understand why the reaction Saturday in Rupp Arena is likely to be mixed at best, even though Kentucky fans right now are thrilled with how it’s turned out. 

“I don’t think you can underplay it — the performance was down, but the relationship was terrible,” Jones said. “He skipped media appearances, he skipped postgame shows, he talked down (to the fans) a lot. The relationship was so bad at the end, it was a lot more than just games. I think he started to see the fan base as the enemy, or at least portions of the fan base. And I think it made him lose what he was so good at for so long, which was really connecting.” 

That will change one day. Jones expects Calipari to eventually get a warm embrace from Big Blue Nation, just as Rick Pitino did earlier this year when Pope brought him to Midnight Madness. All of the acrimony from Pitino’s exit to the Boston Celtics in 1997 and his subsequent years as the enemy at Louisville melted away. 

Calipari’s achievements in his first decade at Kentucky ensure the relationship won’t be bad forever. But Saturday could very well be ugly for him on the court and in his soul, where deep down he understands that it got stale in Lexington and he stayed a few years too long. 

The question now is whether it’s too late in Calipari’s career and his life to rekindle the fire that made him college basketball’s most feared coach. If so, Kentucky got luckier than it deserved, and Arkansas is simply the new Kentucky, stuck between hoping he has another run in him but fearful his best days are definitively in the past.