SAN JOSE, CA — All John Calipari could do was sit there.
His Arkansas team had been high flying all month. It was dunking like it was the “Lob City” Los Angeles Clippers, and shooting like it was the Golden State Warriors’ “Splash Bros.” Darius Acuff Jr. was showing why he’s destined to be an NBA star, giving belief the coach could get the Hogs back in the Final Four.
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That was until he saw the bracket.
Before the tournament began, Calipari thought if there was one team he didn’t want to see, it was Arizona. He knew it was a bad matchup for his team, and if he was going to meet them on the court, the goal was to hope it could hang around long enough to turn the pressure on them.
After Thursday, March 26, Calipari might as well have been Nostradamus, correctly predicting the unfortunate fate the Razorbacks faced, falling to top seed Arizona, 109-88, in the Sweet 16. It wasn’t just a loss, it was a beatdown.
“Arizona is really good,” Calipari said.
The nightcap in San Jose was billed as having the potential to blow the roof off of SAP Center with all the fireworks each team could light off. But what was expected to be a fun battle ended up being a dud for nearly all 40 minutes of action, with Arkansas never leading in the game.
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That’s not necessarily saying Arkansas fell apart. It’s just the fact it happened to be directly in the path of the Arizona buzzsaw.
“They got us from right at the beginning,” Calipari.
The Wildcats have looked like a national championship contender all season, but their Sweet 16 performance might have been their best one yet. Coach Tommy Lloyd was hesitant to call it that, but so many signs point to it.
They shot 63.8% from the field, the best mark against a Power conference team this season. Only eight 3-pointers were shot, but five of them went in. A team that prides itself on getting to the foul line shot a whopping 39 free throws.
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“Our guys did a great job of just staying steady and making the game simple and trying to find our advantages every possession,” Lloyd said.
Arizona played to its strengths. The star freshman were running up and down the court, driving to the bucket and the bigs were punishing the interior.
All of it sucked the life out of Arkansas. It frustrated every member, leading to two technical fouls – one on Calipari – and two Flagrant foul calls. There weren’t endless 3-pointers or hard-hitting dunks that built this March run. For the last part of the second half, Calipari and his team sat on the bench, knowing it just got the worst version of the bad matchup.
“We went out there and played our Arizona brand of basketball,” said freshman Koa Peat. “Everything fell in place.”
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With the win, Arizona is once again on the cusp of breaking its dreaded Final Four drought, last appearing in the national semifinals in 2001. One could argue a curse has hovered over Tucson for 25 years, but if there is one team to snap it, it’s this one. After the Sweet 16, all the signs point to it.
But remember, Arizona has been in this same exact position before. Outstanding seasons have been washed out plenty of times. The Wildcats have been to the Elite Eight five times since the last Final Four then – with some great squads – but have failed to break through every single time.
Lloyd knows having 35 wins, tying the program record set in 1987-88, doesn’t guarantee finally breaking through. Arizona will face an experienced Purdue team with players that know what it’s like to get to a Final Four.
“The great thing about basketball and the tough thing about basketball is, unfortunately, that doesn’t automatically translate to Saturday,” Lloyd said. “We’ve got to find a way to kind of recreate that rhythm we had tonight. We know that’s going to be a big-time challenge.”
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If Arizona does in fact recapture what happened in the Sweet 16, then that buzzsaw will stay on, ready to take out anyone in the way of the Wildcats finally breaking through.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Arizona is ready for March Madness breakthrough after Sweet 16 rout
