John Calipari was fine with giving Alabama basketball credit. However, there was one thing the Arkansas coach didn’t care to discuss after the 117-115 double-overtime loss to the Crimson Tide.
Down the stretch, the Razorbacks lost four players to foul trouble after starting the game with seven. Meleek Thomas, ex-Alabama forward Nick Pringle, Billy Richmond III and DJ Wagner all picked up five fouls. Those remaining on the floor for Arkansas were left gassed out, which was exactly what the Crimson Tide had plotted to happen.
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Calipari acknowledged that the circumstances made it “hard” for pulling out a win to be possible.
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“I don’t want to talk about the fouls and all that just because I don’t want to get in trouble,” Calipari said.
Instead, he complimented Alabama.
“They fought until the very end. Give my team credit. They fought. I told them after, ‘I’m proud of you. You fought.’ Never gave up,” Calipari continued. “We had a chance right down until the end.”
The Crimson Tide came back from a 14-point deficit in both halves to take the game out of regulation.
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“We were not staying in front of people. You have a guy, we kept saying, ‘He likes going left.’ And he kept going left. And he kept going left. And they kept calling fouls. And he kept going left. So we know. They tried to switch up the pick-and-roll stuff to try and slow Darius (Acuff Jr.) down. I think he had 50, so I don’t know, I mean… They did some good stuff. We had to adjust. We had to put Billy and stuff. Fouling guys out − that’s going to hurt this team,” Calipari said.
“You call a lot of fouls like that, you know, rough, rough game. We’re gonna be down two when the rent is due.”
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for The Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball 2OT win left John Calipari quiet on this topic
