There were some people who predicted the Arkansas Razorbacks would upset the Kansas Jayhawks in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. College basketball analyst Rece Davis was one of those people, as he had John Calipari’s men beating Bill Self’s squad and advancing to the Round of 32.

If you ask Calipari and the Razorbacks if they expected to beat the Jayhawks, though, they couldn’t confidently say that’s the case.

After leading Arkansas to the 79-72 win over Kansas on Thursday, Calipari admitted that they naturally had doubts about their chances. After all, the Razorbacks were the lower-seeded team (No. 10) and were considered as 5.5-point underdogs against the No. 7 seed Jayhawks.

“Every one of us, including me, had doubts,” Calipari admitted, per Coach’s Diary. “We all had to convince ourselves we’re going to do this.”

John Calipari: We all have doubts. The first battle we have is with ourselves.

So how do you hold them accountable and challenge them while still building them up?

Keep loving them and keep holding them up. Have a lot of individual meetings.#MarchMadness #MarchMadness2025 pic.twitter.com/cYjTNjzwsL

— Coach's Diary (@ACoachsDiary) March 21, 2025

At the end of the day, however, John Calipari was ecstatic that they got the job done and are now moving on to the second round.

“Good win, we gutted it out,” Calipari added, as shared by Adam Zagoria of NJ.com. “This was a good win. That was an NCAA Tournament game. Two teams battling it out, making shots, making plays.”

Forward Jonas Aidoo led the way for the Razorbacks in the tough win, scoring 22 points along with five rebounds. Johnell Davis added 18 points, while Trevon Brazile had a double-double of 11 points and 12 boards.

The win gave Calipari his first NCAA Tournament win with the Razorbacks after taking over last year. It also ended the Jayhawks’ 17-year streak of winning their first-round games.