It really was “Fried Calipari” on Thursday night.
The Arkansas Razorbacks blew a 13-point lead to Texas Tech in the final five minutes as their offense bottled up and they struggled to keep the Red Raiders off the offensive boards in the Sweet 16 showdown.
Darrion Williams, who hit the 3-pointer that forced overtime, knocked in a shot to give Texas Tech an 85-83 advantage with just 7.3 seconds remaining in overtime.
Calipari decided to let the Razorbacks go on offense rather than call timeout to set up a play that would decide his team’s NCAA Tournament fate.
Guard DJ Wagner ran down the court, dribbled the ball into traffic, and clanged a contested jumper off the side of the rim as the Razorbacks season came to a close with Calipari taking his final timeout with him to the locker room after a disappointing defeat.
“I usually let that go,” Calipari said. “Now, because it ended the way it did, yeah, I wish I would have called a timeout. But 99% of the time, I let that go because now I know what they’re doing, they know what we’re doing. That’s why we did it.”
A dejected Wagner could only look down in disappointment after the miss that sent his team packing.
Wagner, who followed Calipari to Arkansas from Kentucky, started 28 games last season for the Wildcats before becoming a critical piece to the Razorbacks’ puzzle this year.
Want to tune into as much March Madness as you can? DIRECTV Stream and Hulu + Live TV both have you covered with every channel you’ll need, plus free trials.
“I told them how proud I was of them, and there’s nothing they could do to disappoint me,” Calipari said. “Yeah, there were plays I wish they had done differently or made, but these kids gave everything, even in this game they gave everything they had to try to win the game.”
It ends a memorable NCAA Tournament run for Arkansas, who beat Kansas and St. John’s to reach the Sweet 16 in Calipari’s first season in Fayetteville.
Texas Tech will take on No. 1 seed Florida on Saturday with a spot in the Final Four on the line.