Arkansas (22-13) started 0-5 and 1-6 in Southeastern Conference play, and as late as Feb. 19 stood at 15-11. Calipari, cast once again as an underdog like in his days at UMass, managed to coax his team into the second week of the NCAA Tournament. He did it by upending two fellow coaching legends in Providence — Kansas’s Bill Self and forever rival Pitino.
“I told them this is as rewarding a year as I have had based on how far we have come,” said Calipari in his usual stream-of-consciousness postgame presser.
Calipari is a polarizing figure. Some will always see him as an unctuous false prophet of college hoops with more vacations than Disney World. Others revere him as an accomplished fixer who wins wherever he goes, like Pitino. Either way, you have to acknowledge his ability.
Coach Cal has been forced to use 10 different starting lineups this season.
“We had a long up-and-down season. We put our egos to the side, all came together, and played a fearless 40 [minutes],” said Arkansas freshman guard Billy Richmond, who scored a team-high 16 points and delivered a baseline jumper with 2:58 remaining that proved decisive.
This contest featured the intensity of a Final Four matchup, not a first-/second-rounder. The congenial but not close coaches had a lot to do with that. They’re familiar adversaries in new acts of their careers.
Pitino vs. Calipari is a basketball brand-name taste test, a matter of preference without any moral high ground. They’re of similar veins — and scrutiny because of NCAA violations — but not exactly the same. They’re the college basketball coaching version of Coke vs. Pepsi, Google Android vs. Apple’s iPhone, Comcast’s Xfinity vs. Verizon Fios.
Choose your fighter.
Both men tried to downplay the magnitude of their matchup and any enmity between them. Pitino characterized it as the two men aren’t close, but share a mutual respect.
There was numerical symmetry. Pitino and Calipari were sideline conducting in the NCAA Tournament for the 24th time. Saturday’s meeting was the 24th time they’ve faced off as college coaches. Calipari holds a 14-10 edge.
This marked the fifth time they’ve met in the NCAA Tournament, and Calipari holds a 3-2 edge there.
(In addition, the oft-compared coaches met six times in the NBA, splitting those matchups.)
Befitting their bombastic and combative personalities this wasn’t an artistic display of offense. Rather, it resembled a back-and-forth bare-knuckles basketball brawl and the fighters from Calipari’s corner were the last ones standing.
The teams tallied 52 missed shots in the first half. St. John’s missed 14 straight field goals and endured a 6:46 field goal-less drought.
Arkansas’s length was problematic for St. John’s, as Pitino predicted. The Razorbacks came in ranked fourth in the nation in blocks (5.6 per game) and swatted seven Johnnies shots.
No one was more bothered by the hand-to-hand combat nature of the contest than Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis, who had a miserable day. He started 2 of 12 and finished 3 of 17 for 9 points, his second-lowest output of the season. A perturbed Pitino benched Luis for the final 4:56.
St. John’s shot 21 of 75 (28 percent) and made 2 of 22 3-pointers one game after tying its season-high with 14 threes in a first-round win over 15th-seeded Omaha.
“We haven’t faced that type of length in athleticism this year,” said Pitino. “That’s not the reason we lost the game. We lost the game because we did not move the basketball enough and that lead to us shooting a very low percentage.”
The Razorbacks revved it up offensively to start the second half, hitting eight of their first 12 shots, all layups and dunks. Shots that St. John’s just couldn’t afford to give up in a game played by perimeter-shooting-challenged teams. The clubs combined to shoot 4 for 41 from 3-point range, including Arkansas failing to make a single three in the second half (0 for 7).
The Razorbacks’ red carpet to the rim allowed the Calipari AC to open up a 13-point lead as Luis and St. John’s couldn’t throw the ball in the Providence River.
St. John’s trailed, 64-66, after a Ruben Prey baseline dunk with 4:11 left. But the Red Storm missed their next seven shots until Zuby Ejofor (23 points, 12 rebound points) had an offensive rebound and dunk with 20.2 seconds left to make it 70-66.
The season came to a bitter end for St. John’s at the hands of the last coach its sideline savior wants to lose to. It had to sting even more for Pitino for it to happen in a territory where he is still a basketball deity for taking Providence College to the Final Four in 1987.
“I hate to see them go out this way. We thought we were championship-driven in our minds,” said Pitino of his 31-5 club that put St. John’s basketball back on the map.
Calipari, who absconded from Kentucky after things turned sour following a 14-year stint that included four Final Fours and the 2012 national title, got the best of his rival and a measure of redemption.
“Rick did a great job with his team all year,” said Calipari. “If they made a few shots, they would probably beat us. We were fortunate to get out, but I’m proud of these guys and all of them here had to overcome stuff and they did.”
Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @cgasper and on Instagram @cgaspersports.
