PROVIDENCE, R.I. — One of the major storylines entering March Madness was the legendary coaching talent walking the sidelines in Providence.
A second-round matchup between second-seeded St. John’s (31-4) and 10th-seeded Arkansas (21-13) pits two of the best in Rick Pitino and John Calipari.
The duo last faced off in an NCAA Tournament in 2014 when Pitino was at Louisville and Pitino at Kentucky. They’ve combined to win three national championships and 113 total tournament games and are the only two coaches to advance to Final Fours at three schools.
The storyline is irresistible but Pitino, the active leader in wins, tried to keep the focus on the players suiting up, not the men in suits on the bench.
“I don’t go against coaches, we go against teams,” Pitino said. “He doesn’t have to worry about me. My jump shot is long gone. We’re preparing for his players. He’s preparing for our players. John and I don’t play one-on-one anymore.”
Pitino led the Big East champion Red Storm to their first NCAA win since 2000, beating Omaha 83-53 on Thursday. It was the largest margin of victory in a tournament game in program history.
A 12-2 run out of halftime broke open a 33-28 game and squashed any doubt of an upset.
Leading the Red Storm to their 10th straight win, RJ Luis Jr. made five of the team’s 14 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 22 points (8-of-14 shooting) and eight rebounds.
“I think it’s keep on playing, make adjustments and be relentless in the pursuit of excellence defensively and I think we did that, we accomplished that,” Pitino said.
St. John’s looks to keep the momentum going against Arkansas, which overcame a 0-5 start to SEC play to make the tournament and beat Kansas 79-72 in its Thursday opener behind a season-high 22 points from Jonas Aidoo.
“Gutted it out,” Calipari said.
Aidoo entered the tournament as the team’s eighth-leading scorer (6.4 points per game), but the Tennessee transfer has heated up averaging 15 points and nine rebounds over the last five contests.
“We all know we have something to prove. We went through a lot of adversity, injuries, missing players, let a couple games go,” Aidoo said.
Arkansas used just eight players against Kansas, including New York native freshman Boogie Fland who played in his first game since Jan. 18.
“Boogie for not playing what? How many months? … We can’t have contact because if someone gets hurt I’m down to five,” Calipari said. “So he practiced but there was no contact and he went in and did what he did (Thursday),” logging six points, three assists and three steals.
The Thursday win was Calipari’s 58th all-time in the NCAA Tournament, breaking a tie with Kansas’ Bill Self for the most among active coaches.
Calipari made it clear. He is enjoying this team’s March march.
“Every one of us, including me, had doubts and we all had to convince ourselves we’re going to do this,” Calipari said. “I had a card I read every morning and every night before I went to bed, and it was, I’ve been blessed throughout my life. Forget basketball. I have been blessed.
“I’m going to enjoy this journey and grow as a coach from it. I am going to make sure I keep an eye on my players, and let’s write our own story, and in the end it says, ‘Have Faith.'”
The winner of Saturday’s second-round game is headed to San Francisco for the West Region semifinal next week and a Sweet 16 date with winner of 11th-seeded Drake and third-seeded Texas Tech.
–Joshua Kummins, Field Level Media
