John Calipari and Rick Pitino have crossed paths many occasions of their careers.
The 2 legendary coaches each have been in contrast to one another all all through their profession paths, starting from rebuilding packages into championship contenders within the Northeast, to enjoying underneath the brilliant lights of Rupp Area with the Kentucky Wildcats.
They’ve met one another practically 30 occasions of their illustrious careers, with Calipari holding a 17-12 benefit, together with a Last 4 victory in 2012 over Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals.
However given the circumstances, this one must be up there.
No person gave the Razorbacks an opportunity towards the red-hot Purple Storm. The workforce had misplaced main scorer Adou Thiero with a knee damage and began out their common season poorly, opening SEC play with an 0-5 file. They suffered devastating shut losses to their ranked counterparts, and even gave last-place South Carolina their second SEC win of the 12 months in a 19-point romp.
St. John’s, alternatively, entered this sport with the exact opposite trajectory. Pitino’s squad rattled off 30 wins within the common season, tied for essentially the most ever in an everyday season. They’d scoring threats all throughout their lineup, with RJ Luis Jr. being named Large East Participant of the 12 months.
Billed in as 7.5 level underdogs, Calipari’s Razorbacks pulled off the shock of the match, knocking off the St. John’s 75-66, ending the Purple Storm’s dream season.
Freshman Billy Richmond led the Razorbacks with a career-high 16 factors and 9 rebounds whereas coming off the bench. Freshman Karter Knox completed with 15 factors and 4 blocks, and Johnell Davis added 13 factors.
Zuby Ejiofor led the Purple Storm with a double-double, posting 23 factors and 12 rebounds. Deivon Smith added 13 factors off the bench.
Luis, the workforce’s main scorer, was held to solely 9 factors on a poor 3-17 capturing evening, resulting in him being benched for the final minutes of the sport.
St. John’s capturing woes have been on full show. With the primary criticism being an absence of an environment friendly three-point shooter coming into the match, the Johnnies silenced all critics by draining 14 triples at a 37.8% clip en path to a 30-point blowout of the Omaha Mavericks within the first spherical.
Saturday afternoon couldn’t have been extra totally different.
The Purple Storm shot a dismal 9.1% from past the arc, solely hitting two of their 22 makes an attempt from past the arc. They didn’t fare higher from the ground, making 28% of their photographs from the sphere.
The Razorbacks protection held Kadary Richmond and Luis to a mixed 14 factors on 5-24 capturing. Their relentless burst and drives to the paint racked up Richmond’s foul rely, with the graduate scholar finally fouling out after solely 16 minutes of sport time.
“They have been the higher workforce. They outplayed us they usually deserve to maneuver on, and we don’t,” Pitino mentioned.
Arkansas didn’t fare significantly better. The Razorbacks shot 10.5% from past the arc, nailing solely two triples. Nevertheless, they discovered higher effectivity within the area, primarily the paint, capturing 42.9%.
The Razorbacks obtained off an environment friendly begin, constructing a lead early and attacking St. John’s within the paint to attract fouls or end layups on the rim.
St. John’s struggled to attain with effectivity regardless of extending possessions with 28 offensive rebounds. The paint presence of Knox and Tennessee switch Jonas Aidoo pressured tough putback seems to be and created quite a few possessions of Purple Storm gamers firing a number of layups on the rim that by no means fell.
“There are some video games we performed this 12 months the place the opposite workforce mentioned ‘that was a bodily workforce,’” Calipari mentioned. “I informed them it jogged my memory of that. I do know St. John’s is bodily, however we’re bodily too.”
Arkansas took a three-point lead into the half after freshman Boogie Fland made a layup with seconds remaining within the opening body. In his return from a thumb damage, Fland completed with six factors and 4 rebounds.
The Razorbacks took that momentum within the second half, constructing a double-digit lead after rattling off a 14-6 run capped off by an Aidoo and-one.
St. John’s performed catchup for the rest of the half, finally slicing the result in 4 with simply over 4 minutes to play.
After Billy Richmond sank a mid-range jumper to convey Arkansas’ lead again to 4 off a flare, Fland stole the ball, resulting in a D.J. Wagner layup to increase the result in six.
St. John’s entered panic mode, firing contested threes that caromed off the rim. Regardless of grabbing two offensive rebounds in a single possession, the Purple Storm failed to realize floor on the lead, as Aaron Scott missed two free throws that will have reduce the result in 4.
Scott, Smith and Luis, St. John’s three-leading sharpshooters, mixed to go 1-11 from past the arc. Scott struggled mightly from the sphere, capturing 1-10 and mustering seven factors off one triple and free throws.
Because the workforce continued to rain missed threes, Knox and Davis made their free throws as soon as St. John’s started deliberately fouling to shut out the sport.
When Billy Richmond was fouled with 4 seconds left, each groups might really feel the end result. The Arkansas bench and gamers ran to their facet of the court docket, leaping as they raised their palms.
Pitino had already made his approach to half court docket to shake palms together with his nemesis earlier than the ultimate buzzer sounded.
With the win, Calipari superior to his sixteenth Candy 16 and have become the second coach in Division I historical past to take 4 totally different colleges to the Candy 16. Calipari took a UMass workforce with Marcus Camby to the Last 4, a Derrick Rose-led Memphis squad to the Nationwide Championship and numerous Kentucky groups to deep runs within the match.
He can now add the Razorbacks’ team-effort in his debut season.
“We had a protracted up-and-down season, so we simply all got here collectively, put our egos to the facet and simply grew to become one heartbeat like (Coach Calipari) mentioned and simply play a fearless 40 (minutes),” Billy Richmond mentioned.
Arkansas will now play Texas Tech and JT Toppin within the Candy 16.