The “Mecca of Basketball” will now host Indiana men’s basketball against the University of Arkansas at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Nov. 17, per an announcement from Indiana on Monday. The game will be part of the Bad Boy Mowers Series.
Monday’s announcement increased Indiana’s high-major nonconference games during the 2026-27 season. The Hoosiers already have matchups against Syracuse University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Missouri on the schedule. The Syracuse and Kentucky contests will be played Nov. 9 and 20, respectively.
Indiana holds a 2-3 overall record against the Razorbacks in the program’s history, with four matchups played since the 2007-08 season. In the last game between the premier college basketball programs, Arkansas took down the Hoosiers 71-64 in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall during the 2019-20 season.
The only neutral-site matchup came during the 2008 NCAA tournament, as Arkansas won 86-72 in a first-round game in the RBC Center — now known as the Lenovo Center — in Raleigh, North Carolina. Twenty-two points from then-Indiana senior forward D.J. White couldn’t overcome the Razorbacks.
The last time Indiana played in MSG was during the 2023-24 season. The Hoosiers lost to the University of Connecticut before defeating the University of Louisville 74-66 in the Empire Classic.
In head coach Darian DeVries’ first season in Bloomington, the Hoosiers went 3-10 in Quadrant 1 games. With the game being at a neutral site, the Razorbacks must be inside the top 50 in NET for it to be classified as a Quad 1 contest.
Arkansas head coach John Calipari will make the game a tough task for the Hoosiers. After spending 15 seasons at Kentucky, Calipari moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas, before the start of the 2024-25 season. The Razorbacks won the 1994 NCAA tournament but haven’t made a Final Four since 1995.
Still, in two seasons at the helm, Calipari has led Arkansas to back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances. The Razorbacks were ranked as the No. 1 2026 recruiting class in the 247 Sports composite rankings.
The class was headlined by 6-foot-2 guard Jordan Smith Jr., who was ranked as the No. 3 player in the country. Arkansas also brought in two other five-star recruits: guard JJ Andrews and forward Abdou Toure.
However, the Razorbacks will rely on their freshman talent, as many players left the program this offseason.
Freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr. led Arkansas with 23.5 points per game last season but was drafted No. 7 in the NBA Draft by the Sacramento Kings. The Razorbacks also lost freshman guard Meleek Thomas, graduate senior guard Nick Pringle and senior Trevon Brazile, while sophomore wing Karter Knox and junior guard D.J. Wagner entered the transfer portal.
Now-junior wing Billy Richmond III is Arkansas’ highest-profile returner for this upcoming season. Richmond averaged 11.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game last season. Arkansas also picked up junior guard Jeremiah Wilkinson. The University of Georgia transfer averaged a team-high 17.4 points per game last season.
Fans of the Cream and Crimson already got an early sneak peek of the new-look Hoosiers lineup with a 98-64 victory over the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in an exhibition contest June 16. Indiana is now representing the United States at the FISU America Games from July 20 to Aug. 1 in Lima, Peru.
Indiana also announced exhibition contests against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Western Kentucky University before the regular season begins.
The North Carolina game will take place at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Oct. 18, while the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, will hold the Western Kentucky matchup on Oct. 25.
