Winners/losers from first weekend of the NCAA tournament include John Calipari, Darryn Peterson Big Ten and Kentucky

The first weekend of the NCAA Tournament is a foregone conclusion, with very different winners and losers.

Among the big winners are the Big Ten and John Calipari, who in his second season as head coach led Arkansas to its second Sweet 16 appearance. Meanwhile, Kentucky is on its way home.

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As for future lottery pick Darryn Peterson, he didn’t end up impressing NBA executives at Kansas. Let’s take a look at the biggest winners and losers from the first two rounds:

Winner: John Calipari

John Calipari’s exit from Kentucky marked a sea change in the college basketball landscape.

The most successful program in the game is parting ways with one of the most successful coaches of his era, who created a pipeline of elite talent for Lexington and led the Wildcats to a national championship.

But a chronic lack of tournament success, including a nine-year Final Four drought, made the relationship difficult to sustain. The two parted ways after a first-round exit in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

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Fast forward two years and Calipari earned the break. Calipari took some of his talent with him to a new job at SEC rival Arkansas and led the Razorbacks to the Sweet 16 in his first year. Now, he’s leading Arkansas back to the Sweet 16 with star point guard Darius Acuff Jr. leading the way through two games and arguably the best player in the tournament.

Acuff, a future NBA lottery pick with top-5 upside and a first-team All-America selection as a freshman, will be scorched earth in the tournament. In wins over Hawaii and High Point, Acuff averaged 30 points, 6.5 assists and 1 steal per game. He shot 49 percent from the field and 5 of 11 three-pointers (45.5 percent). He was the talent Kentucky took for granted during Calipari’s reign.

Now he’s in Arkansas for the second weekend of the tournament. Kentucky returns home after a tough second-round loss to Iowa State, where head coach Mark Pope will enter his third season coaching his alma mater.

-Jason Owens

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Loser: Darin Peterson

Lottery pick Darryn Peterson enters the tournament with a chance to solidify his spot on the NBA draft boards and answer questions that dogged him during his freshman year at Kansas.

With Kansas falling to St. John’s in the second round, questions remain surrounding Peterson and his position at the top of the draft is uncertain.

Peterson’s championship game was a microcosm of his tumultuous regular season at Kansas. In the first round, he scored 10 straight points and showed off his strength with an elite triple to help Kansas take a 26-point lead against Cal Baptist.

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But late in the second half, when Cal Bapist cut the lead to six points, Peterson disappeared in the final seconds. He made his 28th point with 5:43 left in the game but did not score again. In fact, he was barely involved in Kansas’ offense and didn’t touch the ball on multiple runs down the court as he cut Cal Baptist’s 66-52 deficit to 66-60 in the final minutes.

Kansas survived a failed bid to prepare for Sunday’s game against St. John’s. Peterson once again led the Jayhawks with 21 points. But there were times during the game when he wasn’t involved in KU’s offense. Then on the final play, Peterson, a formidable defender, offered no help and Dylan Darling drove through the Kansas defense almost unchallenged and drained the game-winning layup at the buzzer.