LOS ANGELES – Love and hate entered Galen Center before USC’s first-round game against UNC Greensboro tipped off at 3 p.m. ET Saturday.

The love: Sisters Aylah Johnson, 7, and Ari Johnson, wearing puffy buns and No. 12 jersey in tribute to USC superstar JuJu Watkins.

They’ve been rocking the JuJu look since Watkins joined the team last year, said their father, Justin.

JuJu Watkins injury update: USC star rolls ankle during March Madness game

The hate: Art Ortiz, wearing around his neck a vanity plate that reads: ‘H8 BRUIN.’’

As in hating the UCLA Bruins. Ortiz took out his phone and showed a photo of Watkins autographing his license plate he said he pulled off one of his former cars.

‘I’m a super fan of USC,’ said Ortiz, who did not need to note he’s also a super hater of UCLA.

JuJu Watkins’ bun is iconic. What’s her secret?

A first team All-American, JuJu Watkins is trying to lead USC to its first national title since 1984. She’s averaging 24.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.2 steals. A 6-foot-2 guard, she’s also tied for the team lead in blocked shots with 1.9 per game.

But she’s as well known for her dynamic play as she is her iconic gameday hair. The bun, which is carefully crafted by her mother before each game, has become a bit of a cultural movement in women’s basketball.

If you’re wondering why it’s her go-to hairstyle or how she gets such magnificent, crisp high bun, read more here. 

How to watch USC vs. UNC-Greensboro

Date: Saturday, March 22, 2025
Time: 3:00 p.m. ET
Location: Galen Center in Los Angeles, California
TV channel: ABC
Live Stream: Sling TV

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The No. 10-seeded Jackrabbits upset No. 7 seed Oklahoma State 74-68 in the first round of Women’s March Madness at Gampel Pavillion on Saturday, setting up a game against No. 2 UConn on Monday in the Storrs Regional.

South Dakota State (30-3) erased a 31-24 first-half deficit, scoring 28 points in the third quarter to take a 52-50 lead into the final period. The Jackrabbits never gave the lead back.

Junior forward Brooklyn Meyer led South Dakota State with 19 points, including 5-for-5 on free throws. Junior guard Madison Mathiowetz had 17 points. Oklahoma State sophomore guard Stailee Heard had a game-high 20 points with 10 rebounds.

It’s the second time in three years Oklahoma State (25-7) has been eliminated in the first round. The Cowgirls lost to No. 9 seed Miami (Fla.) in 2023.

South Dakota State improved to 5-8 in first-round NCAA Tournament games. Its last tournament win came in 2023, when it beat No. 8 seed Southern Cal in overtime.

South Dakota State vs. UConn next up in women’s NCAA bracket

South Dakota State’s game with UConn in the second round will feature two of the longest-tenured coaches in women’s college basketball. Huskies coach Geno Auriemma is in his 40th season at UConn, and SDSU’s Aaron Johnston is in his 25th season coaching the Jackrabbits.

UConn beat No. 15 Arkansas State 103-34 in the first round Saturday. It was the 12th time the Huskies have exceeded 100 points in their NCAA Tournament opener, according to ESPN.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — No. 10 Arkansas took advantage of a poor shooting performance by No. 2 St. John’s and upset the Red Storm 75-66 in the extremely physical second-round matchup in the NCAA men’s tournament’s West region.

The marquee coaching contest pitting longtime rivals John Calipari and Rick Pitino was an grind-it-out, heavily officiated affair decided by the Razorbacks’ ability to handle the Red Storm’s intense style of play. The two teams combined for 44 personal fouls and 58 free-throw attempts.

Unable to combat Arkansas’ length and athleticism, St. John’s shot just 28% from the field and made only 2 of 22 attempts from 3-point range.

The win sends the Razorbacks to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in five seasons. Arkansas will next meet the winner of No. 3 Texas against No. 11 Drake.

Playing roughly three hours from campus in front of a decidedly pro-St. John’s crowd, the Red Storm missed their first eight 3-point attempts and trailed 22-14 with 8:40 to play in the first half. They quickly rallied to take a 28-27 lead four minutes later but trailed 35-32 at halftime after Arkansas closed on a 7-0 run.

Overall, St. John’s shot 10 of 42 from the field in the first half and made just one of 13 attempts from deep as the size and length of Arkansas around the basket caused problems. The Red Storm were able to hang around thanks to 14 offensive rebounds, resulting in 11 second-chance points. Arkansas was only slightly better at 12 of 32 shooting, including 2 of 12 from 3-point range.

The lead grew to 42-33 three minutes into the second half after Arkansas converted layups on four straight possessions. An and-one from forward Jonas Aidoo gave the Razorbacks their first double-digit lead at 49-38 with 14:38 to play. That edge ballooned to 55-42 with 11:32 remaining before another quick St. John’s run trimmed the score to 55-49 a minute later.

But Arkansas had answers. It withstood that surge to lead 61-53 with eight minutes left. After the Red Storm made it 62-60 after a pair of free throws with 6:11 to go, the Razorbacks traded buckets until pushing the score to 70-64 on a D.J. Wagner layup with just two minutes to play.

Arkansas made five of six free throws in the final 19 seconds to seal the win.

While both teams dealt with foul trouble, St. John’s played much of the second half with key guards Kadary Richmond and Simeon Wilcher sidelined with four fouls apiece. The two scored a combined 7 points on 3 of 12 shooting. Richmond fouled out with 6:28 to go.

Billy Richmond III scored a team-high 16 points for Arkansas, while Karter Knox added 15. Freshman guard Boogie Fland had six points, four rebounds and two assists in his second game back from a hand injury suffered in January.

St. John’s was led by forward Zuby Ejiofor’s 23 points and 11 rebounds.

This was the 30th meeting between Pitino and Calipari, with Calipari now owning a 17-13 edge in the series. Five of these pairings have come in tournament, including matchups in the 1996 and 2012 national semifinals.

The two Hall of Fame coaches have competed for regional and national supremacy across multiple stops, including a high-stakes rivalry when Pitino was at Louisville and Calipari at Kentucky, where Pitino had earlier won a national championship. Combined, they have coached teams to 13 Final Four appearances and three titles.

Just the second Arkansas coach to lead the team into the tournament in his first season, Calipari is the first to reach the Sweet 16 in his debut. This is his 16th trip to the Sweet 16 and his first since 2019 and after winning just one tournament game in his final five seasons at Kentucky.

For St. John’s, the loss ends what had been a dream turnaround in Pitino’s second season. After an uneven 2023-24 season that Pitino called “the most unenjoyable experience” of his career, St. John’s took home an outright Big Ten championship for the first time since 1985 and won 30 games for the first time since 1986.

The Red Storm struggled in the first half against No. 15 Nebraska-Omaha in the opening round before pulling away after the break for an 83-53 win. They did the same against the Razorbacks but were unable to find that higher gear coming out of halftime.

RALEIGH, N.C. — What’s going to happen here Sunday isn’t primarily about Jeremy Roach.

It’s about Duke vs. Baylor, Sweet 16 on the line, at least two future lottery picks on the floor and a coach in Jon Scheyer who’s trying to do this year what Baylor’s Scott Drew accomplished four years ago when he won the national championship.

But it’s also about how modern college basketball works.

After four years playing point guard at Duke, encompassing 108 starts and 11 NCAA Tournament games and a Final Four, Roach’s career ran out of real estate. Despite having one more year of eligibility due to the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season, it was made clear to him that it was time to move on.

“It was handled with love, honesty and we felt mutually both ways that it would be the best thing for him in his career and where we had to go because of that,” Scheyer said.

Sitting 1,000 miles away in Waco, Texas, Drew saw opportunity. Though he had a highly-rated point guard coming into the program in Rob Wright and another star freshman in V.J. Edgecombe, Baylor combed through the transfer portal looking for experience – and particularly postseason experience. It didn’t hurt that when Baylor lost to Duke last season in Madison Square Garden, Roach played all 40 minutes and had 18 points.

“You try to get some balance,” Drew said. “You don’t want all freshmen; you don’t necessarily want all upper classmen. At the same time, when we won a national championship (in 2021) we had two point guards in Davion Mitchell and Jared Butler. If you can have four point guards out there, I think everybody would like that if you could get them to buy in. You have to play with the ball, without the ball. We thought Jeremy would be great compliment with Rob and vice-versa and could really help teach some of our younger players some things he’s learned.”

But the transfer portal isn’t a fairy tale for everyone. While Roach may have seen himself parlaying his Duke experience into taking the reins at another program, he has found himself as more of a role player with his college career winding down.

That’s how the business works. Baylor’s team functioned better with Wright as the primary point guard. Drew officially made the switch in February. And now here they are, hoping that Roach can be some kind of X-factor against his former team.

“He’s kept a great attitude, and when we made the decision to bring him off the bench, we talked to him and he said, ‘Whatever is best to help the team,’ ” Drew said. “He said it might help the team. He’s really helped Rob, and those two can play together. You can always have two point guards on the court. What you can’t have is none so he’ll do a good job making sure everyone is ready to go tomorrow like he’s done every game. I know it means a little more to him, obviously, but Jeremy is somebody that is capable of having big games and hopefully he has one (Sunday).”

Roach, of course, has been following Duke all season from afar. He joked Saturday that it would be hard not to, given how often the Blue Devils play on national television. And when he saw Baylor get paired with Duke in the same part of the tournament bracket, he realized he should have seen it coming.

“Knowing the committee, they like a story and stuff like that,” Roach said. “Not trying to put too much into it, not trying to get too emotional about it. I’m with Baylor, so I’m just focusing on what we’ve got to do to win this game and how hard we have to play for 40 minutes.

“I’m definitely excited for the matchup. Not trying to make anything bigger than what it is, it’s just another basketball game. I just want to focus on what Baylor has to do, personnel, scout, stuff like that, getting ready mentally and physically.”

Of course, there’s probably more to that than Roach wants to engage in 24 hours before the potential final game of his college career.

In September, during an interview with Field of 68, the former McDonald’s All-American admitted that he wanted to stay at Duke but “stuff didn’t meet up, and it was just my time to go.” Maybe there are no hard feelings, but it wouldn’t be human if he didn’t take this personally.

Maybe that will work in Baylor’s favor, and Roach gives the Bears a true March moment tinged with redemption. Or perhaps Roach will press too hard to make an impact, which has been kind of a theme of his season at Baylor and one of the reasons they’re now bringing him off the bench.

If he considers this season a disappointment, Roach isn’t showing it. And Sunday, he’ll have an opportunity to get the last laugh.

“I think this year has been a lot of good benefits for sure, a learning experience for sure but I have enjoyed every moment,” he said. “It’s my last year and wanted to make the most of it so that’s really it right there.”

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STORRS, Conn. ― UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers was comfortable with the uncomfortable on Saturday.

Bueckers, one of the top players in the 2025 women’s March Madness tournament, had a relatively soft impact on the box score in the No. 2 seed Huskies’ 103-34 first-round domination of No. 15 seed Arkansas State. But that didn’t stop her from making her presence known.

She contributed 11 points, good for fourth among Huskies players, as well as four assists, one rebound, two blocks and two steals in 21 minutes.

For a player of Bueckers’ caliber, that’s a rather pedestrian stat line. But that wasn’t how UConn head coach Geno Auriemma saw it.

‘That’s the way you have to play at Connecticut,’ Auriemma said after the game. ‘Some nights it’s about you and some nights it’s not. What did we have, 29 assists on 40 baskets? That’s pretty good.’

After Arkansas State scored the game’s first basket, UConn unleashed a 13-0 run in the opening minutes. The Red Wolves went scoreless for 5:20 before a 3-pointer finally found its way in, but followed it with another drought of 3:41 to end the first quarter. The Huskies were already ahead by 29.

It was more of the same to end the half. Arkansas State committed 16 turnovers that led to 27 of UConn’s 66 first-half points. The Red Wolves shot 6 for 36 from the field in the first two quarters.

Nothing was easy.

It was Azzi Fudd (game-high 27 points) and Sarah Strong (20 points, 12 rebounds) who dominated the stat sheet. Fudd added seven assists. Strong had five assists of her own as well as five blocks.

Bueckers, meanwhile, was still engaged. Acting as a magnet for defenders, she was consistently able to facilitate passes that led to wide-open scoring opportunities.

‘If you complete a lot of passes early in the possession, you’re going to get a lot of opportunities,’ Auriemma said. ‘That’s pretty much what happened. Every time we broke their pressure, there was a wide-open opportunity at the other end.’

It was Buecker’s first NCAA tournament game since 2023. She watched her teammates fall in the Sweet Sixteen last season while recovering from injury. 

‘A lot of times when kids haven’t played, they put pressure on themselves to make up for missing NCAA tournaments and trying to get it back in one night,’ Auriemma said.

Bueckers stayed composed. She didn’t force shots. She didn’t hang her head when a 3-point attempt rimmed out. And when she was replaced just four minutes into the third quarter — with the Huskies already up by more than 50 points — she remained an engaged teammate on the bench, fine with saving her bullets for later in the tournament.

The Huskies have made the Final Four each year Bueckers has been healthy, but they’ve fallen short of a national title each time. UConn plays the winner of Oklahoma State and South Dakota State in the second round Monday.

MESA, Ariz. — They still are groggy and definitely sleep-deprived after their trip to Tokyo, but the Chicago Cubs are back playing spring training games, with most of their regulars back in the starting lineup Saturday against the Colorado Rockies.

“I thought I was back on pace and over the jet lag,’ Cubs veteran reliever Ryan Brasier said, “but then I woke up this morning at 4 and couldn’t get back to sleep. So, I guess we’re kind of in limbo now.’

Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson was under the weather, and still feeling the effects of the trip, but instead of waiting a day or two, decided it would be better to get his body going again, and was in the starting lineup.

“I’m just going to take some pills and keep it moving,’ Swanson said. “It’s better to go ahead and get back into it rather than sit around and wait a couple of days.’

Cubs starter Justin Steele, who got rocked in his 2025 debut, giving up five hits, five earned runs and three homers in the Cubs’ 6-3 loss to the Dodgers, was thrilled to get the news that he will have the opportunity to immediately erase the memories of that Tokyo start by being named their domestic opening-day starter Thursday against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

While the Cubs lost both games to the Dodgers and returned back to Arizona completely exhausted Wednesday night, they wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again if asked.

“Absolutely, great experience,’ Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “I think we’d all sign up for it again. We’d have full participation in an unanimous vote.’

Cubs DH Seiya Suzuki and starter Shōta Imanaga had a welcome party for their teammates and staff at the Kanda Myojin Shrine featuring a 400-pound tuna that players cut open, capped by a performance by samurai warriors.

“Great dinners,’ Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said. “They did a great job at the stadium, trying to have enough options on guys getting what they wanted. The food there is fantastic.’

Perhaps the strangest aspect, the Cubs acknowledged, being the home team for the two-game series with perhaps 80% of the crowd at the Tokyo Dome cheering for Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers. They certainly were aware of Ohtani’s popularity before they left for the trip, but still, were blown away how huge he is in Japan.

“He’s everywhere over there,’ Steele said, “in the gas stations, in the mall and stuff. You can see him everywhere. It’s a big deal. It’s crazy.’

Said Swanson: “I kind of assumed that he would be everywhere, and he is everywhere. He’s like our Michael Jordan, I guess, in a way. Just the craze and the popularity around him. Just the desire to want to get a glimpse of him. Just the whole thing. It’s pretty cool.’

When a guy is making $100 million a year simply from Japanese endorsements, you get the idea.

“It’s pretty incredible how much he’s on the advertisements,’ Happ said. “But baseball is so big over there, I think even for us, people outside the hotel were there to get autographs and the fans, how appreciative they were. There were a couple of exhibition games where there were a couple of signs for me, which was pretty amazing.’’

Imanaga hardly compares to Ohtani’s popularity, but still, being back home, pitching four hitless innings in the season-debut against the Dodgers, took its toll physically, and definitely emotionally. The Cubs are going to provide him additional rest, and won’t start him until their third-game of the series Saturday against the Diamondbacks, which puts him in line for the home opener April 4 at Wrigley Field.

“Frankly, he’s a little under the weather,’ Counsell said. “That trip was a lot for everybody, but for him in particular. So we’re just going to give him a little extra time to recover fully.’

It was no different for Suzuki, and the Cubs can’t imagine the emotional toll on the Dodgers’ three Japanese players in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Rōki Sasaki and Ohtani.

“I know the trip certainly was more for them than it was for everybody else,’ Counsell said. “You can understand there’s just an added emotional component for them. I’m glad Shōta acknowledged that, frankly. I mean it was just a lot.’’

Brasier, who played for Hiroshima in Japan in 2017 when he was teammates with Suzuki, says it was emotional seeing the passion the fans showed for Suzuki and Imanaga in their homecoming.

“It was so cool getting to be around them in their environment,’ Brasier said. “They love their baseball. I mean, we were told there were 23 million people in Japan that watched our games. That’s just crazy.’’

Now, after two exhibition games and two regular-season games in Tokyo, the Cubs are looking forward to normalcy. They’ll play three more Cactus League games at Sloan Park against the Athletics and Atlanta, move to a Phoenix hotel Tuesday night and open the season March 27. Then it’s off to Sacramento for the unveiling of the Athletics’ new home for the next three seasons. They’ll finally return home to Chicago for their home-opener April 4 against the San Diego Padres.

Considering they already had four opening-day style player introductions in Japan, they should lead the major leagues with seven ceremonies by the 10th game of the season.

“We’re the team of openers this year,’ Happ said.

But at least there will be no confusion who’s the home team and road team with the Cubs probably having more fans cheering for them in Phoenix and Sacramento than they did in Tokyo as the home team.

“I definitely wouldn’t call them home games, that’s for sure,’’ said Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw, who made his major-league debut in Japan. “Everything was different. It was like an entertainment event with smoke and drums and everyone coming out on the field, which was cool. But it’ll be nice to get back into baseball routines, focusing on, you know, the game.’

Once the Cubs clear their heads, and get over jet lag, they’ll just have to remind themselves that they are back to playing exhibition games before games count again.

“I think it’s definitely an interesting challenge,’ Happ said, “going from playing real games that matter and then coming back and playing some spring training games. But I think for all of us, we’re just getting acclimated, getting those at-bats, and feeling like we’re staying in a place that’s ready to go for Thursday.’

Normalcy has never felt so good.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The opponents get better and the matchups get more difficult as you continue through the NCAA Tournament bracket, as No. 12 McNeese discovered early in an eventual 76-62 loss to No. 4 Purdue in the second round of the Midwest region.

After leading No. 5 Clemson by 18 points at halftime of Thursday’s 69-67 upset for the program’s first tournament win, the Cowboys found themselves down by a matching 18-point margin at the break against the Boilermakers, who were simply too big, too strong and too good for the Southland Conference champions.

“Purdue was more aggressive from the start,” said McNeese coach Will Wade. “They were tougher and more aggressive than we were and we thought we were on Thursday. We couldn’t carry that over. We couldn’t fill our tanks back up quick enough to bring that again. They’re a great team, really well-coached, great players.”

The win sends Purdue to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row, the third time in four years and the eighth time overall under longtime coach Matt Painter. After taking care of No. 13 High Point in the first round, last year’s national runner-up heads into the second weekend having won two games at Amica Mutual Pavilion by a combined 26 points.

And the Boilermakers are going home: The region now moves to Indianapolis, a major advantage for a team rallying into form at the right time after a sluggish run through the Big Ten. Purdue will meet the winner of Sunday’s game between No. 1 Houston and No. 8 Gonzaga.

“That’s going to help,” freshman guard Gicarri Harris said. “I know fans are going to pop out for us. It’s just going to help from a fanbase perspective.’

While not unexpected given the quality of competition in two tournament wins, Purdue’s performance so far could be a much-needed palate cleanser following a rough finish to the regular season. The Boilermakers dropped six of nine heading into the postseason, capped by a 86-68 loss to eventual conference champion Michigan in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.

“I think everyone kind of looks at the tournament as a new season,” said senior forward Caleb Furst. “A much shorter season, but yeah, definitely.”

One constant across these two wins has been Purdue’s ability to dominate the paint and the glass. Even with two-time national player of the year Zach Edey off to the NBA, the Boilermakers have the size to control the area near the basket against more guard-driven opponents such as High Point and the Cowboys.

Purdue outrebounded these two opponents 86-48, with 31 of those rebounds coming on the offensive glass. The Boilermakers have scored a combined 62 second-chance points, including a 38-22 edge against McNeese.

“I really like the fact that we did a great job in these two games rebounding the basketball,” Painter said. “It’s really put us in a great position from a possession standpoint.”

This bullying behavior can send opponents off their game and into meltdown mode. With 15:47 left in the first half and Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn heading to the free-throw line after bullying his way to the basket against three clingy McNeese defenders, over-the-top jawing at the officiating crew drew a pair of technical fouls against Wade and guard Christian Shumate. The Boilermakers made three of four from the line to push the lead to 53-28.

Purdue seems better equipped to handle the pressures of tournament play thanks to a veteran roster loaded with postseason experience. Players such as Furst, Kaufman-Renn and guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer have been here, tasting the highs of last season’s run to the championship game and the lows of an historic first-round exit one year earlier against No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson.

“They lead by example, but more importantly, they’re always talking to us, always verbal,” Harris said. We’re getting to the point where if I see something, I say something, too.”

Beating double-digit seeds off college basketball’s major-conference path might not say too much about how Purdue will match up with the Cougars or Bulldogs. The Boilermakers went into the postseason having beaten just one eventual tournament team, UCLA, since Jan. 24.

Whether they can advance past an elite opponent and into the Elite Eight depends on how well Purdue can marry a physical identity and strong shooting from 3-point range with a cleaner pace of play on the offensive end. Averaging just over 10 turnovers per game heading into Saturday, the Boilermakers turned the ball over 19 times against the Cowboys’ aggressive defense.

“We have to execute well, we have to shoot the ball well. That’s not really pressure, that’s just a fact,” Painter said. “We’ve got to clean up our turnovers and keep rebounding because both teams that are going to play in the next game are very, very good teams across the board, but also elite at rebounding the basketball.”

Regardless of the next opponent, Purdue plans to stick to the style of play that has yielded one of the most successful runs in modern program history.

“We know that we make it through the right process, the results will come,” Furst said.

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The Golden State Warriors will be without Stephen Curry for the near future.

Curry has been ruled out for Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.

The veteran guard underwent an MRI after leaving the floor with just over 3 minutes remaining in the third quarter Thursday night.

The results showed he has a pelvic contusion but no structural damage, according to a statement released by the Warriors on Friday. He’s expected to be re-evaluated Monday.

The Warriors open a six-game road swing Saturday night. They are scheduled to play again Tuesday in Miami, where Jimmy Butler will meet his former team.

How did Stephen Curry get hurt?

Curry fell to the floor after attempting to make a pass under the basket and bumping into a defender during a game against the Toronto Raptors with 3:24 remaining in the third quarter.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the game that Curry wanted to return to the game but a decision was made to not risk further injury.

Curry did not travel with the team to Atlanta.

How long is Stephen Curry expected to be out for Warriors?

Curry is expected to miss the Warriors’ six-game trip. He will receive treatments while not with the team.

Three-time Stanley Cup winner Patrick Maroon will be hanging up his skates after this season.

The Chicago Blackhawks forward made the announcement Saturday ahead of Chicago’s game at the St. Louis Blues, his hometown team and the one with which he won his first Stanley Cup.

‘Sometimes, you’ve got to give up everything you know and everything you dreamed of your whole life,’ Maroon told Darren Pang on Chicago Sports Network. ‘I just know it’s time for me and it’s time for my family to go start a new chapter in our lives.’

The soon-to-be 37-year-old helped bring the Blues their first Stanley Cup in franchise history in 2019. He was subsequently traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning and won another two Cups in 2020 and 2021, becoming only the fourth player in league history to win the Cup three consecutive seasons with two different teams.

‘It’s tough,’ said Maroon, whose family was in attendance at Saturday’s game. ‘It’s hard to go through things like this. You can’t really process it, but I think it’s special for me and my family to go start a new chapter.’

Drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in the sixth round of the 2007 NHL draft, Maroon has tallied 320 points (125 goals, 195 assists) and 1,076 penalty minutes in 840 games over 14 seasons with the Anaheim Ducks, Edmonton Oilers, New Jersey Devils, Blues, Lightning, Wild, Boston Bruins and Blackhawks.

He had a fight in Saturday’s game against St. Louis’ Tyler Tucker and was named the No. 1 star of the game in the Blackhawks’ 4-1 loss.

Maroon has 23 goals and 30 assists in 163 career postseason games.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rick Pitino has matched wits with Mike Krzyzewski and Dean Smith, with John Thompson and Jim Boeheim, with Roy Williams, Lute Olson and more, but the only coach he has seen as a true rival — a ‘disliking-each-other rival,’ in his words — is Jim Calhoun, a bitter nemesis during Pitino’s stints at Boston University and Providence.

When Calhoun was at Northeastern, the Terriers’ crosstown adversary, the two would shoot daggers at one another in front of crowds numbering in the hundreds, Pitino recalled. This rancor continued when the pair migrated to the Big East, with Pitino taking both matchups during the 1986-87 Friars’ magical run to the Final Four.

‘We hated each other at BU and Providence, hated each other,’ Pitino said. ‘He goes on to coach at Connecticut, I go on to coach at Providence, and we hated each other there, as well.’

His relationship with Arkansas coach John Calipari is different, surprisingly, given the toe-to-toe battles during overlapping tenures at Louisville and Kentucky that often served as a referendum on regional and national supremacy.

Not good friends but not enemies, either, the Pitino and Calipari dynamic can be described as unenthusiastically respectful: not bitter or unkind but lacking the warmth and camaraderie that come with many connections in the coaching fraternity.

‘I have always had great respect for John,’ Pitino said. ‘You know, I certainly have great respect for him, but we’re not really close. Everybody tried to talk that way. It was just a Kentucky-Louisville and Louisville-Memphis thing. We don’t know each other’s wives or children. We’re not really close friends.’

Said Calipari, ‘I don’t know how long he was at Louisville when I was at Kentucky, but you’re not going to be friends when you got those two jobs. You’re not going to be enemies, but if he’s real good, you’re like, sheesh, and if we were real good, he’s probably saying, ugh.’

Even if not rooted in the same venom that shaped Pitino’s rivalry with Calhoun, this coaching matchup is a TV-ready, must-watch coupling of two coaches who continue to occupy a special place in the college basketball ecosystem: Pitino against Calipari moves the needle as much as any coaching contest the sport can provide.

They’ll meet again in Saturday’s second-round NCAA Tournament matchup pitting No. 2 St. John’s against the No. 10 Razorbacks, the 30th iteration in a series that has included four previous postseason contests. Two of those came in the Final Four: Pitino and Kentucky got the better of Calipari and Massachusetts in 1996, while Calipari and the Wildcats returned the favor against Louisville in 2012.

Counting six games in the NBA, Calipari owns a 16-13 edge in head-to-head meetings against Pitino. The most recent came on Dec. 16, 2016, when the Cardinals beat the Wildcats 73-70.

‘I will study what he’s doing,’ Calipari said of Pitino. ‘I always do. Watch what he’s doing, how he’s doing it.’

Asked where he and Pitino find common ground and where they diverge, Calipari said they ‘both have big noses, so that’s one.’ But Pitino has ‘Gucci shoes and I have itchy shoes, so we’re different there.’

Pitino pushed back on the idea that there’s anything personal involved in Saturday’s game, saying he was solely concentrated on the on-court matchups between his Big East champions and an opponent that pieced together a 79-72 win against No. 7 Kansas in the opening round.

‘I don’t go against coaches; we go against teams,’ he said. ‘He doesn’t have to worry about me. My jump shot is long gone. We’re preparing for his players. He’s preparing for our players. John and I don’t play one-on-one anymore.’

Saturday’s game features two programs at different stages of rebuilding. Pitino called last year, his first with the Red Storm, ‘the most unenjoyable experience’ of his career. But this season has seen St. John’s take home an outright regular-season league championship for the first time since 1985 and win 30 games for the first time since 1986. St. John’s opened the tournament by beating No. 15 Nebraska-Omaha 83-53, pulling away after a sluggish first half.

Calipari’s own debut after 15 years at Kentucky has gone slightly better. After starting 0-5 in SEC play, the Razorbacks rallied in the second half of the conference season to secure a tournament berth. Whether the program can follow the Red Storm’s lead and make a second-year surge remains to be seen.

‘He’s on chapter two of his new book and we’re on chapter one,’ said Calipari. ‘As a matter of fact, we’re probably on the first few pages of the chapter. It’s both of us writing another story and being able to come back here.’

The addresses may change — Amherst, Lexington, Louisville, Fayetteville, Queens — but certain coaching styles do not, both coaches said this week.

‘We know what we’re up against, obviously,’ said Pitino.

Like Pitino-coached teams he’s faced in the past, Calipari said playing the Red Storm is ‘like you’re in combat.’ St. John’s is going to make you earn everything, he told the Razorbacks.

‘They’re a team that’s going to play prepared. They’re going to play hard. They’re going to play rough. It’s going to be bump and grind. You’re not getting a free layup without getting bumped.’

Arkansas is ‘very long, athletic,’ Pitino said, and more dangerous for having a deeper rotation following the return of freshman guard Boogie Fland. He suffered what was expected to be a season-ending hand injury in January, when he was averaging 15.1 points, 5.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game, but played a critical role across 24 minutes of action against the Jayhawks.

‘We have not seen this size and athleticism all year,’ said Pitino. ‘Most of his teams are extremely athletic. This team is as athletic as I have seen. This team is quite extraordinary.’

Personnel, not personality, will decide which team heads to the second weekend. But it’s inevitable that Saturday will bring the focus back to the matchup between two coaches linked by success and late-career second acts that has led to yet another high-stakes game.

‘We’re all going to be judged 50 years from now on what we did and how we did it, but I hope years from now people will say they both got their teams to play hard at a competitive level,’ said Calipari.

‘Do we do it different? Yeah, I guess. I am who I am. Like it or not, this is how I am and how I deal with kids. We’re all different with that.’