Moments earlier than they renewed their decades-long rivalry, Rick Pitino and John Calipari met close to midcourt and shared a number of laughs.
However by the tip of Saturday’s much-hyped slugfest within the NCAA Match’s second spherical, Calipari was the one one with a cause to smile.
A storybook season for Pitino’s second-seeded St. John’s got here to a sudden finish as Calipari’s Tenth-seeded Arkansas pulled off a 75-66 upset in Windfall, R.I., eliminating the Crimson Storm from the Massive Dance.
The Johnnies’ (31-5) season-long taking pictures deficiencies lastly caught up with them towards an Arkansas group (22-13) whose measurement proved an excessive amount of to beat. St. John’s shot simply 21-of-75 (28.0%), together with 2-of-22 from 3-point vary, as Arkansas’ defenders clogged the paint and dared the Johnnies to beat them from exterior.
RJ Luis Jr., the Massive Participant of the 12 months, completed with 9 factors on 3-of-17 taking pictures and spent the sport’s ultimate 4:56 on the St. John’s bench.
The sport was hyper-physical from the soar, which in the end doomed St. John’s. Do-it-all guard Kadary Richmond performed solely 16 minutes earlier than he fouled out. 4 fast fouls restricted fellow starter Simeon Wilcher to 14 minutes.
One in all Arkansas’ finest gamers, 6-11 senior Aidoo, additionally picked up 4 fouls, limiting him to 21 minutes. He completed with seven factors.
Arkansas freshman Billy Richmond III helped choose up the slack with 16 factors off the bench, tying a profession excessive.
For the fourth sport in a row, the Crimson Storm received off to an ice-cold begin.
Arkansas’ measurement benefit loomed massive as St. John’s struggled to get beauty close to the basket. The Johnnies missed seven lay-ups within the first 9 minutes and began a woeful 5-of-28 from the sphere.
5 of these missed lay-ups had been by Luis, who began 0-of-7.
At one level, the Johnnies went almost seven minutes with out a discipline objective, a stretch wherein they missed 14 photographs in a row.
They trailed, 22-14, greater than 12 minutes into the sport.
However as they did in latest wins over Marquette, Creighton and Omaha, the Crimson Storm got here surging again.
Luis made his first discipline objective with 7:37 left earlier than halftime when he tipped in his personal miss. On the following possession, an offensive rebound by Aaron Scott led to a Lefteris Liotopoulos 3-pointer.
Zuby Ejiofor scored 16 factors earlier than halftime, with seven of these factors coming throughout an 18-6 run that put St. John’s up, 32-28.
However Arkansas ended the half on a 7-0 run, which Bronx-born freshman Boogie Fland capped with a driving lay-up within the waning seconds to place the Razorbacks up, 35-32.
The Johnnies shot simply 23.8% earlier than the break — their worst taking pictures half of the season — and wanted 14 offensive rebounds to maintain the rating shut.
St. John’s had dominated second halves all season, however Arkansas by no means relinquished its lead.
The Razorbacks got here out of the break on an 18-8 run and scored their first 13 discipline objectives of the half within the paint. St. John’s trailed by two with underneath three minutes remaining earlier than Arkansas pulled away late.
The sport delivered a long-awaited new chapter within the epic historical past of Pitino and Calipari, who first confronted one another in 1992 however had not squared off since 2016.
Saturday marked the fifth assembly within the NCAA Match between the Corridor of Fame coaches, who break up the earlier 4. The prior bouts included the 1996 Ultimate 4, the place Pitino and Kentucky defeated Calipari and UMass; and the 2012 Ultimate 4, the place Calipari’s Kentucky group beat Pitino-led Louisville.
With Saturday’s loss, Pitino fell to 10-14 towards Calipari on the faculty stage.
Saturday’s win was Arkansas’ largest underneath Calipari, who grew to become the Razorbacks’ head coach final offseason after 15 years at Kentucky. Calipari defeated one other Corridor of Fame coach, Invoice Self, in Thursday’s 79-72 win over Kansas within the first spherical.
The Crimson Storm’s second season underneath Pitino, in the meantime, resulted in heartbreak.
St. John’s had misplaced its first 4 video games by a mixed seven factors.
It gained its first outright Massive East regular-season championship since 1985 and its first Massive East Match since 2000.
Enjoying within the NCAA Match for the primary time since 2019, the Johnnies’ picked up their first win on the Massive Dance in 25 years with Thursday’s 83-53 victory over No. 15 Omaha.
However their first journey to the Candy 16 since 1999 must wait a minimum of another 12 months.
Initially Printed: March 22, 2025 at 5:39 PM EDT
