NCAA Tournament roundup: John Calipari, Arkansas beat Rick Pitino, St. John's

Moon native John Calipari is heading to the Sweet 16 for the 16th time, and this one could be the sweetest of all.

Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks beat longtime nemesis Rick Pitino and No. 2 seed St. John’s, 75-66, on Saturday, sending their itinerant coach to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament with his fourth school.

Billy Richmond III scored 16 points, and Karter Knox had 15 for the 10th-seeded Razorbacks, who sent Kansas and their Hall of Fame coach Bill Self home from the “Region of Coaches” in the first round.

But the victory over his longtime rival was especially sweet for Calipari, who brought the Razorbacks (22-13) back to the tournament in his first season in Fayetteville despite early-season injuries that left them 0-5 to start the SEC schedule.

“I told them, ‘This is as rewarding as a year I’ve had, based on how far we’ve come,’” he said.

Zuby Ejiofor had 23 points and 12 rebounds for Big East champion St. John’s (31-5). Conference player of the year RJ Luis Jr. had nine points, half his season average, on 3-of-17 shooting.

“They outplayed us. They deserve to move on, and we don’t,” Pitino said. “That’s what March Madness is all about. No matter how good a regular season you have, you play this way, you’re going to get beat.”

Pitino’s history in Providence — he took the Friars to the 1987 Final Four — gave him a home-court advantage as he arrived in March Madness with an unprecedented sixth school.

So many of those teams were built with a full-court defense and 3-point shooting.

St. John’s, which beat Omaha in the first round, had the No. 1 defense in the country this season to win the Big East, returning to the tournament for the first time since 2019 with a No. 2 seed that was its best in 25 years.

But the Red Storm’s shooting deserted them Saturday, and they became the first team seeded fourth or better to exit what’s been a chalky tournament so far.

“Rick did a good job with his team all year,” Calipari said. “If they made a few shots, they probably beat us. We were fortunate to get out.”

The teams combined to make four 3-pointers on 41 attempts, with St. John’s shooting 28% from the floor overall.

“I hate to see them go out this way,” Pitino said. “We thought we were championship-driven in our minds, but I have been disappointed before with this. You hate to see us play like that.

“I don’t mind going out with a loss, I just hate to see us play that way offensively,” he said. “It’s just a bitter pill to swallow with that type of performance.”

Arkansas led by 13 in the first half and had an eight-point lead with eight minutes to play before the Johnnies cut it to 62-60 with 6:11 left. But St. John’s missed its next six attempts from 3-point range, and made just one of its last nine shots — Ejiofor’s dunk with 20 seconds left.

Knox made a pair of free throws, and then Deivon Smith dribbled the ball off his knee and out of bounds. When Richmond was fouled with 5 seconds left, the Razorbacks ran down the court in celebration, waving their arms for the outnumbered Arkansas fans in the crowd.

Purdue 76, McNeese 62 — Trey Kaufman-Renn had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and the fourth-seeded Boilermakers used a fast start to roll in the second round.

Fletcher Loyer added 15 points. C.J. Cox finished with 11 points for the Boilermakers (24-11), who advanced through the Midwest Region to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.

The Boilermakers will meet the winner of top-seed Houston and eighth-seeded Gonzaga in the regional semifinal. In his 16 NCAA Tournament appearances with Purdue, coach Matt Painter is now headed to his eighth Sweet 16.

Sincere Parker had 17 points to lead McNeese (28-7). Javohn Garcia added 12 points as the Cowboys came up short in their bid to give the Southland Conference its first Sweet 16 team since Louisiana Tech in 1985.

McNeese came out in the 2-3 zone that was so successful during its first-round win over Clemson.

But Purdue hit 7 of its first 9 field goals and 3 of its first 4 3-point attempts to build an early double-digit advantage. A pair of three-plus minute scoring droughts by the Cowboys and runs of 10-0 and 9-0 by the Boilermakers helped Purdue grow its lead as high as 36-14 in the first half.

The Boilermakers led for all but 19 seconds.

Purdue shot 11 of 26 from the 3-point line for the game and held a 41-24 rebounding edge.