It’s been awhile since John Calipari has been considered an underdog. He hasn’t been a forgotten team since his days at UMass. When he arrived in Lexington, he was proven and ready to turn Kentucky into a powerhouse.
He did that and ended up staying long enough to see himself become a villain of sorts, which is how he landed at Arkansas. And with his new team brought new challenges, one of which is embracing the underdog mentality.
Calipari has a two-word message that drives him and is the root of how Arkansas propelled itself to an opening round win over Kansas: Have faith. It’s the backbone of this Arkansas team and what could be enough to ignite a tournament run.
The NCAA Tournament loves a good underdog and in the most unlikely of places, we might have one in an Arkansas team that was on the bubble, struggled in the behemoth SEC and now with a chance at a national championship.
John Calipari embracing an underdog mentality in the NCAA Tournament could spell terror for anyone in Arkansas’ path
The only thing more dangerous in March Madness than a team that’s hot is an underdog. If Arkansas, the self-proclaimed underdogs of the NCAA Tournament, take down St. John’s, Calipari might just be onto something.
The Razorbacks were a bubble team a few weeks ago and have already grabbed a monumental win in the NCAA Tournament, knocking out Bill Self and Kansas. Next up is St. John’s, a game that means a lot not just from an upset standpoint, but a matchup of coaches who are very familiar with each other.
It’s been awhile since Calipari was considered an underdog against Rick Pitino, certainly in the NCAA Tournament. Calipari has beat Pitino the last two times the two coaches have met in the NCAA Tournament, most recently in 2014.
St. John’s enters the tournament as one of the strongest teams in the field. That’s what makes the game against Arkansas so compelling. The one team that would stun them in the tournament would be a Calipari-led team that sees themselves as underdogs.
This time of the year, anything can happen, that’s how McNeese met Purdue in the second round and why Memphis was knocked out in the first round to Colorado State. Calipari might just have what it takes to join the list of teams on the hunt for a major upset.