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FAYETTEVILLE — Playing fearless is starting to become a mantra for Arkansas basketball in its first year under John Calipari. The Hall of Fame coach is embracing the underdog role with the Razorbacks after an abysmal 1-6 start in the SEC put the Hogs on the outside-looking-in for an NCAA Tournament berth.
Against No. 3 Alabama, Calipari believes his team briefly abandoned that nothing-to-lose mindset, and it proved to be the difference.
The Crimson Tide (20-3, 9-1 SEC) beat Arkansas 85-81 on Saturday night. The Hogs (20-3, 9-1 SEC) nearly rallied for a victory after trailing by 18 points late in the second half, but they never took a shot attempt after twice cutting the deficit to three points in the final minutes.
For Calipari, the game was lost just after halftime, when a six-point Alabama lead ballooned to 14 after six minutes, and then 18 with 12:17 remaining. That was the portion of the game where fear crept back into the Hogs’ minds.
“I think they wanted to win so bad. You can’t play that way. Just play. Have fun, be fearless, make the plays you have to. Make easy plays,” Calipari said.
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Calipari was so frustrated with his team’s mindset he called a timeout less than two minutes into the second half.
The stoppage didn’t work as Alabama continued to expand its lead behind dominant depth and a ferocious pace. Seven different Alabama players scored at least seven points. The Crimson Tide shot 54.8% from the field and scored 56 points in the paint, barely needing its vaunted attack from 3-point range to beat the Hogs.
“(Alabama) wanted to run. That happens in basketball. They hit shots and we missed shots,” D.J. Wagner said. “We had some bad turnovers. Me, starting off in the half, I had two turnovers. They just capitalized off of that and just hit some good shots.”
Eventually, the switch flipped, and…
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Author : Ft. Smith Southwest Times Record
Publish date : 2025-02-09 05:37:00
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