John Calipari will embark on another reunion during his second season as the Arkansas basketball head coach

Calipari and his Razorbacks will hit the road to face Memphis at the FedEx Forum for an exhibition on Oct. 27 in the Hoops for St. Jude Tip Off Classic. The long-rumored preseason matchup is now official, marking Calipari’s first return to Memphis since he left the program in 2009 to become the head coach at Kentucky.

The game will be broadcast on ESPNU. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m., immediately following a women’s basketball exhibition between Memphis and Vanderbilt.

“This is bigger than that game. This is about what we all can do for St. Jude, but this is also about what we can do for the University of Memphis and what we can do for this great city,” Calipari said.

Across a nine-year tenure with the Tigers, Calipari went 214-68 with one appearance in the National Championship. Memphis lost to Kansas, but Calipari also helped the Tigers make four trips to the Sweet 16 and three Elite Eights.

Calipari and Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway dropped hints about this matchup earlier this summer on Hardaway’s “The Two Cents Podcast”. Toward the end of the podcast episode, which dropped June 30, Hardaway brought up the prospect of rekindling what was once a strong regional rivalry.

“I look forward to future games, hopefully, with you guys,” Hardaway began.

Calipari interjected.

“Let’s start — I’ll say it here. St. Jude (Children’s Research Hospital), you know how I feel about St. Jude,” he said. “You start with this exhibition, but they got to have all my former players come back.”

Now, Calipari will get his wish. Both coaches indicated Calipari’s former players and former staff members will be in attendance, with the exhibition benefitting the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“We initially wanted Arkansas. We wanted it, and we knew we had to make it work,” Hardaway said. “Like (Calipari) said, it’s about all of the former players. I’m obvious born-and-raised in Memphis. I understand what (Calipari) did for this city.”

Arkansas has high hopes for the upcoming season. The Hogs return four meaningful contributors from last year’s team that reached the Sweet 16 in DJ Wagner, Trevon Brazile, Karter Knox and Billy Richmond. Calipari bolstered the roster with five freshman and two transfer bigs. Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas are the stars of the high-school class.

Jackson Fuller covers Arkansas football, basketball and baseball for the Southwest Times Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at jfuller@gannett.com or follow him @jacksonfuller16 on X, formerly known as Twitter.