FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas basketball’s critical 86-81 overtime win over Texas at Bud Walton Arena on Wednesday was a perfect illustration of coach John Calipari’s promise to drag the Razorbacks across the finish line.
While the players rightfully receive most of the credit for a tough, gritty performance, Calipari deserves his flowers as well for navigating his troops through adversity to a victory that has the Hogs on the brink of an NCAA Tournament bid.
Just over a month ago, Arkansas had to reinvent itself in two days following the loss of star freshman guard Boogie Fland and promptly responded with a much-needed home victory against Georgia.
Following the news leading scorer Adou Thiero will be out indefinitely with a hyperextended knee, Calipari was tasked with a similar timeframe to create a roadmap to success in a massive bubble match-up with the Longhorns.
Once again, Calipari pushed the right buttons, much to the chagrin of the many skeptics of his coaching acumen.
” A very valuable lesson is that we’ve overcame adversity,” associate head coach Kenny Payne said. “The way we started this team, from the beginning of the season till now, none of these kids are the same. They all have grown. They all have grown from adversity.”
Calipari’s first move was his most logical, inserting junior forward Trevon Brazile into the line-up in place of Thiero and empowering the talented, albeit polarizing, Razorback to play with freedom.
Brazile set the tone with back-to-back threes to open Arkansas’ scoring, had a pair of highlight dunks and finished with 12 points and 8 rebounds with a team leading +13 plus-minus rating in 40 minutes.
“His first two threes that he made, he shot them with confidence,” Payne said. “He didn’t hesitate. He didn’t think about it. He shot it instinctively, and they went in, and it gave him energy.
“He had six rebounds in the first half, and the whole game we’re screaming, ‘get 12’. If you can get six in a half, get another six. Will this team to a victory. I thought he did a good job.”
Brazile and Thiero can be match-up nightmares for two entirely different reasons. On Wednesday, Calipari took advantage of the unique spacing provided by his frontcourt as Brazile and sophomore big man Zvonimir Ivisic combined for four three-pointers in the first half.
Of course, this forced the Longhorns to pull their bigs out of the lane, creating driving lanes for Arkansas’ guards that helped spearhead a downhill attack that resulted in 31 free-throw attempts.
As Texas adjusted, Calipari countered with pick and rolls and designed post-entries where both Ivisic and re-emerging senior Jonas Aidoo took advantage with multiple back-to-basket scores.
With the exception of finding an answer for superstar freshman Tre Johnson’s scoring onslaught, Calipari stayed a move ahead on the chess board against Texas coach Rodney Terry most of the night.
“Their big guys had four threes to start the half, and we needed to be on a little bit better alert in terms of those guys shooting the basketball,” Terry said.
“They still just put their head down and drive and hope that you foul them and put them at the line, and they go there. We bailed them out on a couple shots that they had no chance of making. They didn’t play any different than they did the last time. They put the ball inside a few more times.”
Arkansas’ timely calls to double Johnson on ball-screens were disruptive enough to generate a couple key defensive stops in overtime, and Calipari’s isolation entries to Ivisic and multiple late press-breakers loomed large in sealing the deal in the closing minutes.
Beyond the X’s and O’s, managing substitution patterns, line-ups and rotations stood out as an X-factor for Arkansas entering the game with a thin seven-man rotation.
Arkansas was able to navigate through 45 minutes of high-intensity basketball with no foul-outs, while each player who set foot on the floor played at least 20 minutes and made key contributions in the win.
“Cal did a great job of subbing,” Payne said. “It’s not a big adjustment. Cal is a believer that, ‘Okay, I got seven. You seven should be really happy because you’re not coming out of the game. You all have to play and contribute.’
“That’s our philosophy, that’s his philosophy, and I thought every guy that came into the game gave us positive energy, they produced.”
