John Calipari admits he was worried about Arkansas making the NCAA Tournament

Arkansas did a lot over the final month and a half to get themselves on the right side of the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. Still, John Calipari admitted he was concerned throughout the day on Selection Sunday.

Calipari said he had worries about the Razorbacks not being in while speaking to the media following their seeding as a No. 10 in the West Region. He said he didn’t know all day long and they all got to thinking as their announcement wasn’t until the very last at-large slot in the bracket.

“We’re in. Anybody looking at this saying we may not get in?” Calipari said as he raised his own hand. “But I’m saying, they were taking teams that we had beaten and they were, like – you start looking around like? Everybody was so confident we were in. I’m like, hey.”

“I was worried. I was worried all day. And I kept saying, why worry? If we’re out, we’re out,” said Calipari. “But, you know, my staff (said) we’re fine. If those teams? We beat them all, we beat them twice and, if they’re in, we’re in. Then, all of a sudden, they’re all, you know – and you’re like, wait a minute, what is happening here?”

The No. 10 seed in the bottom-left section is the final at-large seed on the show considering where it is. That made it a long wait for the ‘Hogs at Calipari’s home on Sunday before finding out they were in and will play in a pod against No. 7 Kansas before the winner likely advances to play No. 2 St. John’s.

Again, this comes after an eight-week stretch where Arkansas turned their season around. The Razorbacks started at 0-5 in conference play in the SEC to fall to 11-7 overall in mid-January. Since then, though, they closed by winning nine of their final fifteen, with seven of the wins being against teams that made the field and only one loss being bad amongst the six they took, to finish at 20-13 overall.

With that, Arkansas will be back in the NCAA Tournament and will do so in their first year under Calipari. That’s all that mattered to him as anything from here is only adding to the accomplishment of earning a berth in his debut with this team in Fayetteville

“The whole point was get in. It’s the first year, getting things established. Struggling early. My teams have struggled early in the past but not like that because we hadn’t played a league like that and where schedule would dictate some of it. But to stick together, to be in dark places yet overcome, to understand the battle that you have is with yourself? The life lessons that these kids take from this, you know, was, is really, um, really good,” said Calipari. “To be able to say, alright, we’re in the tournament? Hard road. Maybe the hardest. But, so what? We’re in.”

“I mean, there were other times where I’m like, why would you put us there, why would you put us in this when we’ve done this? This year, my first year, trying to establish what we are and what we’re about? We’re in the NCAA Tournament with a chance to advance,” Calipari said.

Arkansas will obviously want to move once they take the court this week in Providence. It’ll just be adding to what Calipari already sees as an achievement in what they’ve done in ’24-’25.

“I’m happy were in,” said Calipari. “Let’s go play.”

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