SAN JOSE, Calif. — All John Calipari could do was sit there.
His Arkansas team has been strong all month. It was a dunk like the “Lob City” Los Angeles Clippers, and a shot like the “Splash Brothers” of the Golden State Warriors. Darius Acuff Jr. showed why he was destined to be an NBA star and made his coaches believe he could lead the Hogs back to the Final Four.
That was until I saw the brackets.
Before the tournament started, Calipari knew that if there was one team he didn’t want to see, it would be Arizona. He knew it was a bad matchup for his team, so if he was going to play him on the court, the goal was to hope the match lasted long enough to change the pressure.
After Thursday, March 26, Calipari became Nostradamus, accurately predicting the fate the Razorbacks would face, losing 109-88 to top-seeded Arizona in the Sweet 16. It wasn’t just a defeat, it was a defeat.
“Arizona is a really good place,” Calipari said.
The nightcap in San Jose was touted as having the potential for each team to blow the roof off SAP Center with all the fireworks they set off. However, what was expected to be an entertaining battle ended in a misfire for almost all of the 40 minutes, with Arkansas never taking the lead in the game.
That’s not necessarily to say that Arkansas is doomed. Just the fact that it happened to be directly in the path of the Arizona buzzsaw.
“They got us from the beginning,” Calipari said.
The Wildcats looked like national championship favorites all season, but their performance in the Sweet 16 may have been their best yet. Coach Tommy Lloyd hesitated to call it that, but many signs point to it.
They shot 63.8 percent from the field, their best performance against a power conference team this season. He only took eight 3-point shots, but five of them went in. A team that prides itself on getting to the foul line hit a whopping 39 free throws.
“Our players did a great job of just being consistent and making the game simple and trying to find our advantage on every possession,” Lloyd said.
Arizona played to its strengths. The star freshman was running up and down the court, running for the bucket, and the strong players were punishing him all over the court.
All of that sucked the life out of Arkansas. This frustrated everyone and led to two technical fouls (one on Calipari) and two flagrant foul calls. This March’s record wasn’t filled with endless 3-point shots or big dunks. At the end of the second half, Calipari and his team sat on the bench knowing they had just turned into the worst version of a bad game.
“We went out there and played the Arizona brand of basketball,” freshman Koa Pete said. “Everything fell into place.”
With this win, Arizona once again looks to break its dreadful Final Four drought, which saw it reach the national semifinals in 2001. Some might argue that Tucson has been cursed for 25 years, but if there’s one team that can break it, it’s this one. After the Sweet 16, all signs point to it.
But remember, Arizona has been in this exact situation before. Many great seasons have been washed away. The Wildcats have advanced to the Elite 8 five times since the last Final Four with great teams, but failed to break through each time.
Lloyd knows that even with a program-record 35 wins, set in 1987-1988, he won’t necessarily be able to break through in the end. Arizona will face an experienced Purdue team with players who know what it’s like to reach the Final Four.
“The great thing about basketball, and the hard thing about basketball, is, unfortunately, that doesn’t automatically translate to Saturday,” Lloyd said. “We’ve got to find a way to recreate the rhythm we had tonight. We know it’s going to be a big challenge.”
If Arizona can indeed recapture what happened in the Sweet 16, that buzzsaw will continue to work and be ready to take down anyone who stands in the way of the Wildcats’ eventual breakthrough.
