Seniors, Calipari discuss Razorbacks' routing Jayhawks in NCAA Tournament

In a season that saw their high expectations to start the year constantly threatened by injuries and adversity, John Calipari's Arkansas Razorbacks are keeping the faith that the signs along their road to redemption remain in front of them. The latest sign post came on Thursday in the marquee match up of the opening round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament Western Regional in Providence, R.I. as Calipari's Razorbacks ousted Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks 79-71.

Everything John Calipari and the players said after knocking off Kansas

"Every one of us — including me — had doubts, and we all had to convince ourselves we're gonna do this," said Calipari who got his first NCAA Tournament win since it was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID Pandemic while he was at the University of Kentucky. "I had a card I read every morning and every night before I went to bed, and I've been blessed throughout my life — forget basketball. I have been blessed. I'm (going to) have a great attitude. I'm gonna enjoy this journey and grow as a coach from it."

Now in his first year at Arkansas, Calipari's No. 10 seeded Razorbacks (21-130 will next face the No. 2 seed in the West Regionals, the St. John's Red Storm. St. John's (31-4) is led by another former Kentucky coach, Rick Pitino with tip off scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in the Amica Mutual Pavilion and a chance to advance to next week's Sweet 16 round in San Francisco, Calif.

Pittino's Big East Champions advanced into the second round with a convincing 83-53 win over Nebraska Omaha in their opening round contest.

The Power of Faith

"I am going to make sure I keep an eye on my players, and let's write our own story," Calipari said. "And in the end, it said, 'Have faith.' And I read it in the morning, and I read it when I walk my dog — which I do twice a day. (I) think he walks me, but I think I walk him, but I think it's the other way. And before I go to bed, I have it with me here."

Calipari was fortunate to have a trio of seniors he brought in from the transfer portal to help him secure the win over his chief contemporary rival and fellow Hall of Fame coach, Bill Self. Arkansas' Jonas Aidoo led all scorers in the game with 22 points on the night while stretch forward Trevon Brazile had an 11-point-12-rebound double double effort. Senior guard Johnell Davis contributed 18 points and a trio of steals and rebounds — not to mention a clutch three-pointer with 1:47 to play that put Arkansas up to stay at 71-67.

Davis, who came to Arkansas as the highest-rated player out of the transfer portal from Florida Atlantic where he averaged 18 points a game while shooting 40 percent from three-point range while leading the team to a pair of deep tournament runs over the prior two seasons, struggled early on at Arkansas due to a freak accident over the summer that resulted a wrist injury. But when it was clutch time on Thursday, he heard Calipari's call to 'just shoot it!' Davis hit the critical three pointer and four clutch free throws to seal the win over Kansas.

"I heard (a voice) in the background," Davis said. "It just said, 'Shoot it,' and I just shot it with confidence."

Aidoo also overcame an injury over the summer with a foot fracture which required surgery. It caused him to struggle most of the season, but the 6-11 transfer from Tennessee has rounded into the form that made him the top-rated center in the portal a season ago and first team All-SEC.

Like Calipari, he credits his faith for seeing him through to this point. He has scored in double figures in five of the team's last six games (18-point average) while snagging eight or more rebounds in four of the five games.

"We definitely always have faith," Aidoo said. "I mean, you know, all glory to God. I always give all my glory to Him, so I'm just thankful we're finally peeking at this time. We know we all have something to prove. We went through a lot of adversity early on, obviously, with injuries, missing players, and stuff like that.

"We lost couple games starting 0-and-5 in the conference. Just all those things that helped us build our confidence — build our strength and get us ready mentally for the rest of the season."

Viva Brazile

Despite earning an NBA tryout a season ago before eventually deciding to come back to college, Thursday's game marked the first time senior Razorback forward Trevon Brazile had an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament over his four-year career. Brazile spent his first season as a promising freshman on a bad Missouri team before coming to Arkansas under Eric Musselman as a sophomore.

His sophomore season was derailed by a season-ending knee surgery however and his first year back as a junior, Arkansas failed to make the post season for the first time under Musselman. This season Brazile struggled to return to the high flying, sharp-shooting highlight-maker he was prior to his injury.

But forced back into the spotlight with the injury to Arkansas' leading scorer, forward Adou Thiero — who remains out of Arkansas' nine-man rotation with a knee injury of his own, Brazile has reverted to form down the stretch and recorded five-straight double-digit scoring efforts with four of five double doubles.

"A couple of years ago, I was a part of playing," said Brazile who also had two blocks and several key hustle plays on Thursday. "I was now on the team. So, you know, to be actually out there playing and, you making an impact is real good."

Arkansas also got another solid effort from sophomore point guard D.J. Wagner who had 14 points and six assists against the Jayhawks. Freshman duo Karter Knox and Boogie Fland (in his first game back from a hand surgery in January) each had six points. Fellow freshman Billy Richmond contributed two points and four rebounds.

Kansas was led by Zeke Mayo's 18 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three-point range. Jayhawk forward KJ Adams had 13 points and four rebounds before leaving late in the game with a serious achilles injury, and Hunter Dickinson ended his stellar college career with 11 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

However it was not enough to undo the writing on Calipari's wall, and Arkansas will move on to face his old nemesis, Pitino on Saturday.

"We learned some stuff today, didn't we, boys?," Calipari asked his players in the press conference afterwards. "Yeah. We learned some stuff today, and I told them after. So there's stuff going forward, that are good for us. This was a good win.

"That was a NCAA tournament game. Two teams battling out, making shots, making plays, and, we kinda got away from them in the very end. TB was really good. How active is he? Jonas was really good. Nelly made big shots. DJ played well. Boogie was not playing for what? How many months?"

Red Storm on the Horizon

Wagner, who played the entire game against Kansas said it will be important for Razorbacks — young and old — to stay focused going into the showdown with the Red Storm.

"Really just locking in," Wagner said. "In games like (Kansas), it's my advantage. We knew they was a great team coming to the game. For sure. Against top 10 teams, top five top 10 teams — just going against the comp being in (the SEC), I know it's very competitive this week.

"Every day, every game you play is gonna be games like that. You gotta play the whole forty minutes. Like coach would say — I think it prepared us a lot. It helped us a lot just being in such a great conference, being able to play against so many great teams."