SAN FRANCISCO — There was nothing sweet for Arkansas on Thursday night in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament against Texas Tech.
The Razorbacks blew a 16-point lead in the second half and with it a shot to get to another Elite Eight in an 85-83 loss at the Chase Center. It was the first time a lead that big had been given up in the Sweet 16 and and the only time Calipari has blown one in the NCAA. This game won’t be forgotten by Hog fans for a long time.
“They made plays down the stretch that gave them a chance and they won the game,” Calipari said later.
That was the correct thing to say in that moment. The reality is this team finally ran out of the magical gas it had been running on after an 0-5 start to SEC play. No one expected them to even be in this spot two months ago.
Taking over an Arkansas program that had recent success, Calipari hastily built a team literally from nothing. He didn’t have any players returning and Trevon Brazile didn’t decide to be the only one coming back until after some transfers were in place. He’s worked on building a new program.
Maybe the most impressive thing he did was keep this team together after it had a chance to throw in the towel. They never let go of the rope when a lot of the Razorback fans were figuring that was going to be any day.
“We were 0-5, but they were also in a dark place individually, that they overcame it,” Calipari said. “And I just kept talking. The first battle you have is the one with yourself. Don’t worry about battling anybody else. Battle yourself. How do you keep a good attitude? How do you understand there’s only one way to do this is work your way through it. Get in the gym. Spend more time.”
Then he had to get them thinking about the team and not indivduals.
“You’re so worried about yourself, you can’t play for us,” he said. “Then the game’s really hard. They became one heartbeat and the game became easier for each of them. Each of them did some good stuff. Every one of them played better, grew as a player, grew as a person, that’s what made it so rewarding for me because there was a chance they could have let go of the rope.”
At the time, Calipari kept the fath when the question was first asked. He saw something in the team most fans couldn’t. You can’t be critical of the fans because there’s no way they know much about the players and they weren’t seeing or hearing enough to get their hopes very high.
“I was asked that question, will they let go of the rope, you’re 0-5?” Calipari said “And I said, no, I don’t believe it because of who they are and what they stand for. And I’ll say it again. Aidoo probably shouldn’t have even tried to play today, and Boogie still wasn’t fully there, but he wanted to play. It tells you all about them and their love for their teammates and their team.”
None of that caused the problem against Texas Tech. It was just a simple deal where the Hogs went cold and the Red Raiders suddenly figured things out down the stretch.
“Today we gave up a lead but we did that a bunch this year,” Calipari said. “Up 15 and all of a sudden you turn around and it’s a two-point game.
“They had a will to win. And even this game. I mean TB’s 3, the way we started the half, the way we ended the half, and then the way we executed coming out. They did all the right stuff except we didn’t rebound. And that was a big difference in this game.
“But when you talk about how we guarded them, pretty good. They’re a good team. Field goal percentage, 3-point field goal percentage, our free-throw percentage, there was a lot of stuff — it was one of our Achilles’ heels, offensive rebounding against us.
Last game it was 28 offensive rebounds. I thought TB down the stretch came up with rebounds. We miss a free throw that made it a 3-point game. Now you’re, like, okay, it’s 12 seconds. A little too early to foul. A kid that was 1-for-9 makes it. And it was contested.”
In the end, Calipari just put things where they probably belong in these games.
“Sometimes that stuff is stuff that happens in these games,” he said.
Folks tend to forget a lot that every team still playing has pretty good players. By the Sweet 16, the pretenders are separated from the contenders.
These Hogs proved they weren’t pretenders.
In the end they finished about where the preseason polls had them. Just to refresh your memory that was in the bottom half of the first 16 teams.
Which is exactly where things ended up.
