No. 2 St. John’s knocked out of NCAA Tournament by No. 10 Arkansas

John Calipari is heading to the Candy 16 for the sixteenth time, and this one may very well be the sweetest of all.

Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks beat longtime nemesis Rick Pitino and No. 2 seed St. John’s 75-66 on Saturday, sending their itinerant coach to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament along with his fourth college.

Billy Richmond III scored 16 factors and Karter Knox had 15 for the Tenth-seeded Razorbacks, who despatched Kansas and their Corridor of Fame coach Invoice Self dwelling from the “Area of Coaches” within the first spherical.

However the victory over his longtime rival was particularly candy for Calipari, who introduced the Razorbacks (22-13) again to the match in his first season in Fayetteville regardless of early-season accidents that left them 0-5 to begin the Southeastern Convention schedule.

“I informed them, ‘That is as rewarding as a yr I’ve had, based mostly on how far we have come,'” he mentioned.

Zuby Ejiofor had 23 factors and 12 rebounds for Massive East champion St. John’s (31-5).

Pitino’s historical past in Windfall — he took the Friars to the 1987 Last 4 — gave him a home-court benefit as he arrived in March Insanity with an unprecedented sixth college.

So a lot of these groups had been constructed with a full-court protection and 3-point capturing.

St. John’s had the No. 1 protection within the nation this season. However their capturing abandoned them on Saturday and so they turned the primary staff seeded fourth or higher to exit what’s been a chalky match up to now.

“Rick did a great job along with his staff all yr,” Calipari mentioned. “In the event that they made a number of pictures, they most likely beat us.”

The groups mixed to make 4 3-pointers on 41 makes an attempt, with St. John’s capturing 28% from the ground total.

Finish recreation

Arkansas led by as many as 13 within the first half, and had an eight-point lead with eight minutes to play earlier than the Johnnies lower it to 2, 62-60, with 6:11 left. However St. John’s missed its subsequent six makes an attempt from 3-point vary, and made simply one in every of its final 9 pictures — Ejiofor’s dunk with 20 seconds left.

Knox made a pair of free throws, after which Deivon Smith dribbled the ball off his knee and out of bounds. When Richmond was fouled with 5 seconds left, the Razorbacks ran down the courtroom in celebration, waving their arms for the outnumbered Arkansas followers within the crowd.

Up subsequent

Arkansas heads to San Francisco to play the winner of Saturday night time’s matchup in Wichita, Kansas, between third-seeded Texas Tech and No. 11 seed Drake.