Arkansas is heading to the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in its last four NCAA tournament appearances. (Photo by Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)
The first high seed has gone down in the 2025 NCAA tournament.
John Calipari’s No. 10 Arkansas got the best of Rick Pitino’s No. 2 St. John’s in a 75-66 West region upset that was dominated by fouls and key players in foul trouble.
The Red Storm trailed by 13 at one point in the second half and cut Arkansas’ lead to 66-64 with 4:11 to go. But a Billy Richmond III jumper with 2:58 remaining restored the lead back to four, and a steal by Boogie Fland and a bucked by D.J. Wagner immediately after a St. John’s timeout following Richmond’s basket helped seal the game.
It’s the fourth time in the past five seasons that Arkansas has advanced to at least the Sweet 16. Before missing the tournament a year ago under Eric Musselman, the Razorbacks had gone to the Elite Eight in 2021 and 2022 and the Sweet 16 in 2023.
The victory is the third for Calipari against Pitino in the NCAA tournament. The national title winners were 2-2 against each other in the postseason and hadn’t met in March Madness since the 2012 Final Four when Calipari was at Kentucky and Pitino coached Louisville. It also means a Calipari-coached team is in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019. Kentucky lost twice in the first round and once in the second round in each of the past three tournaments.
St. John’s star and Big East player of the year RJ Luis Jr. struggled mightily on Saturday and was on the bench for the final 4:56 of the game. Luis led the team with 18.5 points per game this season but was just 3-of-17 from the field and scored nine points.
The Red Storm were clearly bothered by Arkansas’ length throughout the entire game. St. John’s was a staggering 8-of-25 on shots classified as layups. That poor shooting helped lead to 28 offensive rebounds and 25 second-chance points.
The poor shooting wasn’t limited to the paint, either. St. John’s was 2-of-22 from behind the 3-point line and shot just 28% overall. Zuby Ejiofor was 7-of-12 from the field and the only Red Storm player to shoot better than 50% as Aaron Scott was 1-of-10 and Deivion Smith was 4-of-11.
The two teams were called for 44 fouls across 40 minutes. Though the game was always intriguing, it was a rough watch at times with the way it was officiated. And those foul calls helped dictate the way the coaches had to alter their rotations.
St. John’s Kadar Richmond and Simeon Wilcher played a combined 31 minutes because of foul trouble. Richmond fouled out while Wilcher finished with four fouls. Pitino chose to sit them for much of the first half after they picked up two fouls in the opening period.
Arkansas had four players with at least two fouls in the first half including Fland. Zvonimi Ivisic fouled out with 11 minutes to go and Fland, Johnell Davis and Jonas Aidoo finished with four fouls each.
The Razorbacks hardly looked like an NCAA tournament team at the beginning of 2025. After going 11-2 in non-conference play and only losing to Illinois and Baylor, two other teams that made the tournament, the Razorbacks lost their first five games in SEC play. Granted, that stretch included Tennessee and Florida, teams that were seeded in the top eight of the tournament field, but it also included a 78-74 loss to LSU, a team that finished next-to-last in the conference.
The Razorbacks won four of their last five games of the regular season to finish conference play at 8-10. That stretch was good enough to make the tournament thanks to victories over Missouri, Texas, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State. All four of those teams were part of the record 14 teams from the SEC that qualified for the 68-team bracket.
Fland wasn’t around for that closing stretch. Before returning for Thursday night’s game against Kansas, he hadn’t played since Jan. 18 because of a thumb injury. He had six points in 24 minutes against the Jayhawks and finished with six points in 20 minutes on Saturday.
