John Calipari’s Arkansas vs Mark Pope’s Kentucky - Comparing Darius Acuff, Meleek Thomas & others with Otega Oweh, Jaland Love & more

As the build-up to the 2025-26 college basketball season heats up, there has been a debate on which team is better between John Calipari’s Arkansas and Mark Pope’s Kentucky.

On Tuesday, Field of 68 sparked the conversation on Instagram by posting a side-by-side graphic of DJ Wagner and Darius Acuff of Arkansas and Otega Oweh and Jaland Lowe of Kentucky.

“Arkansas vs Kentucky — TWO LOADED ROSTERS🔥 Which squad you rollin’ with this season? ⬇️,” the caption read.

In the 2024-25 season, Kentucky, under Pope, had a solid year, reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament with a 24-12 overall record and 10-8 in SEC play.

Arkansas also reached the same stage of the NCAA Tournament, but with a 22-14 overall record and 8-10 in SEC.

Heading into the 2025-26 season, Arkansas strengthened its roster with Malique Ewin and Nick Pringle coming in via the transfer portal. They boast a squad that includes Wagner, Acuff, Ewin, Pringle, Jaden Karuletwa, Meleek Thomas, Amere Brown, Trevon Brazile, Karter Knox, Billy Richmond III, Isaiah Sealy and Karim Rtail.

Kentucky counters with depth and balance, led by Oweh. They did more in the transfer portal, signing five players, including Lowe, Jasper Johnson, Jayden Quaintance, Denzel Aberdeen and Kam Williams.

These players will form a deep Wildcats roster alongside Andrija Jelavić, Collin Chandler, Trent Noah, Brandon Garrison, Walker Horn, Zach Tow, Braydon Hawthorne, Mouhamed Dioubate, Malachi Moreno and Reece Potter.

With both coaches heading into the second season, it will be interesting to see how they evolve with their teams.

John Calipari explains why he prefers a small roster

Despite struggling with injury last season and ending the season with about seven players, Calipari has insisted it is what he prefers.

“That’s one of the reasons I don’t want a team with 14, 13 guys… seven you can get by, and we did. I thought we could win the national championship the way we played at the end… I still only want to have 8 or 9,” Calipari said.

However, Arkansas is going against this philosophy heading into the 2025-26 season, with the Razorbacks boasting a full roster.