John Calipari defends decision to not call timeout in final seconds of overtime vs. Texas Tech

Arkansas led by as many as 16 points during Thursday’s Sweet 16 loss to Texas Tech. The Razorbacks had a chance to tie the game on the final possession of regulation, but came up just short after a missed jumpshot from DJ Wagner that would have sent the game into overtime.

After the last Texas Tech possession, Razorbacks head coach John Calipari elected to let his guys play the final possession without taking a timeout. During his postgame press conference, Calipari was asked about his decision-making process in the game’s final moments.

“In my career, I let that go and let the guy get to the rim,” Calipari explained. “They’re not going to foul you. With that kind of time, just me, you call a timeout, now you’ve got to worry about what he’s doing, how he’s playing, the inbound, what are you doing.

“So I usually let that go. Now, because it ended the way it did, yeah, I wish I would have called a timeout. But 99 percent 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. The end of the half we wanted to go at one guy, and we did. He made a hard bump on DJ that got him kind of off balance on the shot. But it was what we wanted.”

The show wouldn’t fall, and Arkansas’ season ended in heartbreak in the Sweet 16. After starting the season 0-5 to begin conference play, there was a real possibility that the Razorbacks wouldn’t make the March Madness field in the field place.

However, Arkansas would go on to win eight of its final 13 regular season games against SEC competition. That final stretch, in the end, was enough for the selection committee to give the Razorbacks the nod as a No. 10-seed.

Arkansas went on to make the most of their opportunity in the NCAA Tournament. First, knocking off No. 7-seed Kansas in the first round in a game where the Razorbacks led by as many as 11 points. Then, the battle between two Hall of Fame head coaches in the second round — Arkansas’ John Calipari vs. St. John’s Rick Pitino — where the Razorbacks would once again emerge victorious.

While it appeared for a while like they’d be heading to the Elite Eight, their effort feel just short of the rim at the buzzer. In the end, Arkansas finishes its season 22-13 having won seven of their last 10 games of the season dating back to the end of February.

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