“Apparently the broadcast said Calipari is 35-0 when leading by 6+ points in the NCAA Tourney? What a stat. What could go wrong?” wrote John Nabors from Inside Arkansas on X during the recent Arkansas Razorbacks-Texas Tech Red Raiders game. As it turned out, everything! Though the odds were in Arkansas’ favor in the first half, things started to slip away in the next half to the point that the game went into overtime! John Calipari’s team fought at that stage too, but a series of shots and misses ultimately culminated in Texas securing the win, and a position in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2025. Questions began to be raised immediately after the game. Was it bad coaching? Too many slipups? Missed opportunities?

Though discussing the loss would be the last thing he wanted, John Calipari was fortunately there to shed some light on it. The 66-year-old participated in the post-game presser soon after Texas recorded the 2nd largest comeback in ‘Sweet 16’ history. John Calipari admitted that the Texas squad carried a ‘will to win’. However, so did Arkansas, as seen in how they started and ended the 1st half.

He admitted that “They did all the right stuff, except we didn’t rebound. And that was a big difference in this game. But when you talk about how we guarded them, pretty good. And they’re a good team. Field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, or free throw percentage. I mean, there was a lot of stuff. You just…. it was one of our Achilles heels, the offensive rebounding against us last game was 28 offensive rebounds”.

Texas Tech especially made it a point to focus on rebounding during the close game. After all, with Arkansas leading by as many as 16 points during the 2nd half, conventional methods had to be kept to the side. Texas guard Christian Anderson said, “In the huddle, Coach kept saying, ‘We’re going to find a way to win this’. No matter how much we’re down, I think it was like 16 [points] with 10 minutes left or something. As a team we kind of had that look, like, ‘We’re not losing this game no matter what.’ No matter if it’s defensive, offensive rebounds — we got to get defensive rebounds, steals. I know we had to find a way to make it happen, and at the end we did.”

The effect of this strategy soon started to be seen. The tide of the game reportedly started to turn at the 9:02 mark, when Texas Tech had possession for nearly a minute thanks to six offensive rebounds. It ended at 8:17, with a Federiko Federiko tip-in to cut Tech’s deficit to 11 (61-50). During the final minutes of regulation, Arkansas was hurt by poor shot selection. It missed 4-5 three-pointers over the final 3:11, including one early in the reset 20-second shot clock by Wagner off an offensive rebound.

In the end, Texas Tech had recorded 18 more shot attempts than Arkansas. It had scored 16 second-chance points with 22 offensive rebounds. The 22 offensive rebounds after Arkansas allowed St. John’s to grab 28 in the second round. Calipari’s squad had not allowed an opponent more than 18 since Tennessee had 24 in the SEC opener on January 4th.

Poor defensive rebounding and inability to hold big leads were, as the Southwest Times Record reported, ‘Arkansas two Achilles’ heels throughout the season’. Back in January, the Florida Gators took advantage of this during a matchup against John Calipari’s squad by hauling in 16 offensive rebounds and scoring 19 points off them. During the last three games up till the matchup against the Gators, the Razorbacks had reportedly been out-rebounded, 136-95. The trio of Tennessee, Ole Miss and Florida, all combined to score 42 second-chance points.

Therefore, something of this nature should have been expected to come back and affect the Razorbacks once again. However, given the success it had achieved against Kansas and St John’s, emphasizing rebounding would have slipped for the squad this time around.

“We should have boxed out,” said freshman forward Karter Knox, who had scored 20 points and 6 rebounds. “That’s how they get offensive rebounds. We just didn’t get the rebounds.”

As the coach highlighted, things had been going wrong throughout the game, not just in the end. However, the Razorbacks could have still made a comeback in the final minute, had it not been for a few lapses from John Calipari too.

John Calipari admits to missed timeout call that broke his team’s chances: “99 percent of the time, I let that go”

According to College Basketball Report, John Calipari not fouling up three and saving his timeouts ended up costing Arkansas the game. This was a reference to how, before Darrion Williams provided the game-winner with a short hook shot in the extra period, there were still seven seconds on the clock when Williams gave the Red Raiders a late lead. If he wanted, Calipari could have chosen to call a timeout so that a proper strategy could be thought of. After all, having already lost a 16-point lead to go into overtime, one might have needed to plan things out for the final stretch.

However, Calipari did not call the timeout. The Arkansas possession ended with a fadeaway jumper from D.J. Wagner that hit the front of the rim, and ended the team’s Elite Eight hopes. Calipari knew that the final particular moment would be emphasized. He was more than prepared to reveal why he made the decision.

“In my career, I let that go”, said the Arkansas head coach. “Let the guy get to the rim. They’re not going to foul you. With that kind of time, just me, you call a timeout, now you’ve got to worry about what he’s doing, how he’s playing, the inbound, what are you doing. So I usually let that go. Now, because it ended the way it did, yeah, I wish I would have called a timeout. But 99 percent of the time, I let that go.”

During regulation, Darrion Williams also made a 3-pointer that tied the score 72-72 with 9.7 seconds left. Calipari did not call a timeout even then. In the end, Wagner took a difficult shot and missed, taking the game into overtime, and creating the next mess. The one time John Calipari was needed to utilize that 1%, and it did not come out.

Texas Tech will next face the Florida Gators in the Elite Eight. Two teams that were able to get the better of the same rival through rebounds. The matchup between them would certainly be an interesting watch.