Arkansas will get another crack at Indiana next season, and this one comes with a marquee backdrop. The Razorbacks and Hoosiers are set to meet on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at Madison Square Garden as part of the Bad Boy Mowers Series, marking the first time the teams have squared off since 2020.
A tipoff time and television details are still to come, but the setting alone gives the matchup some real weight. Lindsey Keller, Bad Boy Mowers’ VP of Marketing, said, "This matchup represents what the Bad Boy Series is all about," said Lindsey Keller, VP of Marketing at Bad Boy Mowers. "It features two teams from different conferences getting to compete, and where better to have it than Madison Square Garden?"
For John Calipari, the venue is familiar territory. The Arkansas coach has built a reputation for loading up on neutral-site games, a habit that dates back to his UMass days in the early 1990s. Since arriving on the college basketball stage in 1988 with the Minutemen, he has coached at MSG 28 times and owns a 16-12 record there.
His first game on the Garden sideline came with UMass in the 1991 NIT, when Stanford beat the Minutemen 78-71 in the semifinals. UMass then dropped the third-place game to Colorado, 98-91, to finish fourth.
Arkansas already has one recent Garden memory under Calipari. In his first season in 2024-25, the Razorbacks edged Michigan, 89-87, in the Jimmy V Classic. That night also carried a subplot involving Florida Atlantic transfer Johnell Davis and his former coach Dusty May, though Davis had a quiet outing with six points, four rebounds and one assist on 2-of-8 shooting from the floor and 1-of-4 from deep in a little more than 31 minutes.
Calipari’s history against Indiana is limited to his Kentucky years, since he had never faced the Hoosiers before 2009. He went 3-2 against them from 2009-2024, with those five meetings coming in a mix of regular-season games and NCAA Tournament matchups.
Arkansas has its own long trail of games against Indiana, too. The first came in 1949 at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, when Presley Askew’s Razorbacks entered at 2-3 and lost 75-50.
The teams wouldn’t meet again for nearly 60 years, until the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament in Raleigh, N.C. Sonny Weems was electric that day, pouring in 31 points on 12-of-14 shooting as Arkansas beat Eric Gordon and the Hoosiers 86-72.
They split a pair of tight games in the 2018-19 season. Arkansas got the first one in the Hardwood Showcase at Bud Walton Arena behind Daniel Gafford’s 27 points and 12 rebounds. Indiana answered in the second round of the NIT at Assembly Hall, taking a 63-60 win over a Gafford-less Arkansas team.
The most recent meeting came in Eric Musselman’s first season, when Arkansas pulled away late for a 71-64 win at Bud Walton Arena. Isaiah Jones and Mason Jones combined for 45 points for the Razorbacks, going 15-of-37 from the field and 10-of-26 from three.
With Indiana now on the schedule, Arkansas has completed four major non-conference games for the 2026-27 season. The others are Michigan State in Detroit on Nov. 26, at North Carolina on Dec. 1 and Arizona in Phoenix on Dec. 19.
In Other News...
Arkansas Just Sent A Clear Message With Its 2026 Uniform Tweak
Arkansas is giving its football look a small but noticeable reset for 2026, and the change says as much about the programs priorities as it does about the uniform itself. The Tyson Foods logo will move into a cleaner spot on the right shoulder, while the SEC logo shifts to the collar, keeping the Razorbacks in a traditional lane as Ryan Silverfield begins his first season.
Silverfield has already signaled that the program intends to stay classic rather than chase anything flashy right away, which fits the broader tone around this transition. The next chance to hear more about that approach comes at SEC Media Days on July 23, when Arkansas is set to send Sutton Smith, Caden Kitler and Quincy Rhodes Jr. to represent the team. [Read more 🡒]
Arkansas May Have Finally Found The Answer To Its Secondary Crisis
Arkansas secondary spent much of the offseason looking like the biggest question on the defense, and the arrival of Tulane transfer Jahiem Joker Johnson gives the Razorbacks a much-needed veteran piece to build around. Johnson comes in with real production behind him and a reputation for understanding the game, which matters for a unit trying to settle in under a reshaped defensive staff.
The fit is what makes this addition so intriguing. Arkansas is asking its corners to absorb a new system while helping shore up pass coverage that has been a problem, and Johnson is expected to be one of the players who can handle that transition quickly. The staff clearly believes his instincts and football IQ can translate right away, even if the bigger question is how soon he can turn that promise into a difference on Saturdays. [Read more 🡒]
Eli Drinkwitz Just Took An Infuriating Tone About Arkansas-Missouri
The Battle Line Rivalry has long been one of the SECs more familiar late-November fixtures, but this year it lands on Oct. 31 after the league moved Arkansas-Missouri off Thanksgiving weekend. Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said the change caught him off guard, though he made clear the date on the calendar does not change what the game means to either side. For Arkansas, it is still the same border rivalry, just with a different backdrop and a little less holiday tradition attached to it.
Drinkwitz also pointed out the simple reality of SEC football: the challenge does not soften because of when or where a game is played. That is part of what makes this one interesting for the Razorbacks, who have seen plenty of tight, physical meetings with Missouri in recent years and now have to deal with the rivalry in a new slot that feels a little less familiar. The move may have altered the setting, but it has not lowered the temperature. [Read more 🡒]