PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Victory tasted sweet for John Calipari and his Arkansas basketball team Saturday at Amica Mutual Pavilion.
Coaching against his long-time rival Rick Pitino, Calipari’s 10th-seeded Razorbacks kept their NCAA Tournament dancing shoes on with a 75-66 upset victory over second-seeded St. John’s.
Arkansas (22-13) punched a ticket to the Sweet 16 for the 15th time in program history and for the fourth time since 2021. The Razorbacks will play third-seeded Texas Tech on Thursday at Chase Center in San Francisco.
Texas Tech defeated 11th-seeded Drake 77-64 on Saturday in Wichita, Kan. A time for the Arkansas-Texas Tech game has yet to be announced.
“Rick did a great job with his team all year,” Calipari said. “If they made a few shots, they would probably beat us. We were fortunate to get out, but I'm proud of these guys and all of them here had to overcome stuff and they did.
“They did because they're good guys, they've been raised right and they knew — not at the beginning of the year — that we absolutely need each other or we're going down together. And they became one heartbeat.”
St. John’s (31-5) had its 10-game winning streak snapped. The Red Storm had lost by a combined 7 points prior to Saturday.
“I've had a lot of tough losses, and I've had a lot of great victories in the NCAA [Tournament] and it always ends with you hating this moment,” Pitino said. “It always ends that way….I think we lost to Kentucky in the Final Four [in 2012 with Calipari as the Wildcats' coach] and it didn't end bitter because we gave everything we had.
“Tonight, we didn't play a great brand of offensive basketball and that's disappointing, but overall I'm grateful for these [seniors] that gave me everything they had.”
The Razorbacks won despite shooting 2 of 19 (10.5%) from three-point range, giving up 28 offensive rebounds and a laundry list of foul trouble. Defense was the calling card for Arkansas to overcome those deficiencies, though, as it held St. John’s to a season-low 28% shooting performance (21 of 75)
“I just saw we went 2 for 19 from the three and won?” Calipari said. “What in the world? Then I saw they were 2 for 22. Was it an ugly game? Or was it a game that was exciting? Both? An ugly, exciting game.
“You know I don't care. It could be an ugly, ugly game and I'm happy we're moving on.”
St. John’s got within 64-62 with 4:56 remaining, but Arkansas closed the game on an 11-4 run. Billy Richmond made a baseline jumper to beat the shot clock with 2:58 remaining that gave the Razorbacks a 68-64 and the Red Storm could not make a final push.
The Johnnies missed 8 of their last 9 shots, and Aaron Smith missed a pair of free throws while trailing 70-64 with 1:04 remaining.
Arkansas salted the game away by making 5 of 6 free throws over the final 19 seconds.
“Congratulations to Arkansas,” Pitino said. “They were very athletic, played a great game, took away a lot of what we do.”
Two freshmen, Richmond (16 points) and Karter Knox (15), led Arkansas in scoring.
“They're not afraid and they want to prove themselves,” Calipari said. “I don't believe any of them were all freshmen in our league.
“I think they have a little chip on their shoulder about that. They're talented.”
Arkansas led by as much as 13 at 55-42 with 11:32 remaining before hanging on due to foul trouble.
Zvonimir Ivisic fouled out and Jonas Aidoo (4 fouls), Nelly Davis (4) and Boogie Fland (4) all had foul issues in a physical game that had Calipari sweating it out with his 8-man rotation
“If you really want to bust out,” Calipari said, “you have to take some knocks and then overcome them to know you can, because their whole career they're going to have in basketball is going to be that.
“Can you overcome the bad spells? Can you be so confident and fall back on your training? If you can't, there's no one picking you up. You’ve got to pick yourself up.”
It was the fifth NCAA Tournament matchup between Calipari and Pitino, second most in the tournament's history behind Mike Krzyzewski and Tom Izzo’s six.
Calipari and Pitino have faced each other 24 times, including NBA stints. Calipari took a 14-10 lead in the head-to-head series.
Arkansas improved to 5-0 in postseason games played in Providence. The Razorbacks also advanced to the Sweet 16 as a double-digit seed in 1996 when the 12th-seeded Razorbacks defeated fifth-seeded Penn State 86-80 and fourth-seeded Marquette 65-56.
The 1996 Razorbacks lost 79-63 to Calipari-coached UMass that year at the Sweet 16 in Atlanta.
Twenty-three years later, the Razorbacks won 84-72 at Providence in the first round of the 2019 NIT.
The eyes of the college basketball world were on Arkansas’ latest game in Providence under Calipari, who defeated Pitino for the first time since 2016 when Calipari was at Kentucky and Pitino at Louisville.
It was the first meeting between Arkansas and St. John’s since the Razorbacks downed the Red Storm 80-74 at the 1993 NCAA Tournament second round in Winston-Salem, N.C.
History repeated itself 32 years later, with Arkansas advancing in the round against the Red Storm.
It was expected to be a physical game between two teams in the top 20 of adjusted defensive efficiency by KenPom, with St. John’s entering ranked No. 1 and Arkansas No. 18 in the category. The Razorbacks proved early they were in for a bump-and-bruise battle by blocking shots, diving on the floor and playing strong defense.
“There are some games we played this year where the other team said, ‘That was a physical team,’ and I told them and reminded them of that,” Calipari said. “I know St. John's is physical, too.”
Arkansas took a 14-6 lead behind strong play from Knox. Back-to-back blocks by the freshman and a dive to the ground for a jump ball gave the Razorbacks possession, and after a timeout he completed a three-point play.
Knox shot 3 of 5 from the field and 9 of 11 from the foul line. He added 6 rebounds, 4 blocks, 1 assist and 1 steal to go along with his 16 points.
“I love a physical game,” Knox said. “It’s right up my alley.”
It was a Red Storm-heavy crowd inside the packed 12,410-seat venue that is about a 3-hour drive northeast of the St. John’s camps in Queens, N.Y. The crowd was quiet until it finally got a chance to erupt with 14:23 left in the first half.
The fan base got its first opportunity to come alive when a 7-0 run over a 47-second spurt pulled the Johnnies within 14-13. St. John’s big man Zuby Ejiofor scored 9 of his team’s first 13 points.
It was part of a team-high 23 points for Ejiofor, who made 7 of 12 shots and 9 of 11 free throws. The only other St. John’s player in double figures was Deivon Smith, who scored 13 points.
Arkansas buckled down defensively and went on an 8-1 run to pull ahead 22-14 with 7:58 left before halftime. St. John’s missed 14 consecutive shots from the field during the run.
A second-chance make by RJ Luis, an AP second-team All-American, ended the drought for the Red Storm and ignited a big run. It was one of few highlights for Luis, who was 3 of 17 (17.6%) from the floor with 9 points — his second-fewest scoring total of the season.
St. John’s stormed ahead 28-27 and took its first lead since the 18:30 mark with a steal and score by Smith with 4:25 left. It was part of 18 points scored off 9 turnovers by the Razorbacks.
Arkansas seized momentum with a 7-0 run over a 2-minute span entering the halftime locker room to go ahead 35-32.
The run included a hook shot by Ivisic over Ejiofor and a driving layup by Fland just before the first-half buzzer sounded.
“Coach Cal said, 'Go get a bucket,'” Fland said. “He can rely on me whenever we need that. I made it happen, and we're in the Sweet 16 now.”
It marked the first time since the 1994 national championship game against Duke that Arkansas led at halftime over a No. 2 seed at the NCAA Tournament.
Ejiofor scored 16 points in the first half to lead St. John’s, which shot 10 of 42 (23.8%) before halftime. The Red Storm had 10 more shots than Arkansas before halftime largely due to 14 offensive rebounds.
Aidoo picked up his third foul 55 seconds into the second half, and 5 seconds later Ivisic picked up his fourth.
Despite the foul trouble, the Razorbacks surged to a 40-33 lead with back-to-back driving layups by D.J. Wagner. The spurt caused Pitino to call a timeout 2 minutes, 31 second into the half.
“We talked about at halftime, the first 5 minutes of this half, we’ve got to get them to call a timeout,” Calipari said. “These kids came out and executed, got some rebounds.”
A steal and layup by Knox out of the timeout showed Arkansas was not going away. The Razorbacks grew their lead to 53-41 with 11:58 remaining, but it came at the cost of players continuing to struggle with fouls.
Aidoo picked up his fourth foul with 12:17 remaining, and 19 seconds later Ivisic fouled out. It left 3 total fouls left to spare among the Razorbacks’ big men, Aidoo and Brazile, for the game’s remainder. Brazile played 19 minutes after halftime.
“I just didn't care what I had to do,” Brazile said. “I just wanted to win.”
After falling behind by as many as 13 points, St. John’s capitalized on the Arkansas foul trouble and made a push.
The Red Storm used a 7-0 run, capped by a jumper by Smith, to get within 55-49 with 10:12 left in the game.
Nelly Davis picked up his fourth foul with 7:57 remaining and Arkansas ahead 61-55, and St. John’s continued its climb. It pulled within 62-60 with 6:11 remaining on free throws by Scott.
The Razorbacks and Red Storm went blow for blow over the next 4 minutes during a spurt that saw St. John’s guard Kadary Richmond foul out.
Billy Richmond beat the shot clock with a baseline jumper with 2:51 remaining to put Arkansas ahead 68-64.
A steal by Fland out of the timeout led to a driving layup by Wagner that put Arkansas up 70-64.
The Razorbacks finished 27 of 63 (43%) from the field and 19 of 27 (70.4%) from the free throw line. They committed 9 turnovers that led to 18 points for the Red Storm.
Part of the season-low shooting performance from St. John’s was a poor 2-of-22 (9.1%) clip from three-point range. It was 22 of 31 (71%) from the stripe.
It will be the second time in the last four seasons for Arkansas to play a second-weekend NCAA Tournament game in San Francisco. The Razorbacks defeated top-seeded Gonzaga 74-68 at the 2022 Sweet 16 before losing to Duke 78-69 in the Elite Eight.
Calipari made the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 when his Kentucky team made the Elite Eight. Calipari has coached 16 teams to the second weekend of the tournament and his 59 tournament victories are most among active coaches.
