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John Calipari: ‘Wish I called a timeout’ on final overtime play vs. Texas Tech
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John Calipari let the final possession of Thursday night’s 85-83 overtime loss to Texas Tech play out. With Arkansas needing a bucket to keep its season alive, Calipari elected not to call a timeout and draw up a play. Instead, with 7.3 seconds left, DJ Wagner caught an inbounds pass a few feet from his own basket, dribbled out the clock, and took a long, contested 2 that fell short.
Fans blasted Calipari for sitting on the timeout and not finding a way to get the ball into the hands of Johnell Davis, who finished the game with 30 points. Asked about the decision after the game, Calipari said he had some regrets in hindsight but stayed true to himself in the moment.
“In my career, I let that go. Let the guy get to the rim. They’re not going to foul you,” he said. “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% 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 D.J. that got him kind of off balance on the shot. But it was what we wanted.”
Arkansas led Texas Tech by 16 points with 10:23 remaining in the second half. After Tech cut the lead to 7, a 6-0 Arkansas run restored a 13-point lead with 4:43 to play in the game.
Over the final 4:21 of regulation, Texas Tech outscored Arkansas 16-3 to tie the game and force overtime.
Three different Red Raiders scored 20 points in the game. Arkansas got 30 from Davis on 8-of-22 shooting and 20 from Karter Knox on 6-of-8 shooting (4-for-4 from 3). Wagner closed the game with 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
The loss was Calipari’s first-ever NCAA Tournament defeat in a game where his team led by at least 6 points at the halftime break. He was 35-0 before Thursday night.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
