John Calipari desperately wanted to show critics that he could take a team deep into March Madness with his new squad, and he certainly had reinforcements on his side.
The stress level for Calipari’s family in March has been evident.
The Arkansas Razorbacks are being cheered on by John’s wife Ellen Calipari as well as the couple’s daughter Megan during March Madness.
Megan went viral for her intense reactions during Arkansas’ first-round matchup against the Kansas Jayhawks.
Megan went viral again before the Sweet 16 after posting a series of pictures on her Instagram that included her mom and John Calipari’s wife.
She captioned it, “Big pig energy 1&2. Most importantly got to see @cal_mrs. 3. my dads creative storage solution for his homemade salad dressing in the hotel room. 4. not my first basketball arena nap (or my last).”
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John Calipari’s Decision Doomed Arkansas
The Arkansas Razorbacks had it all in front of them as they blew a 13-point lead to Texas Tech in the final five minutes of their game.
Darrion Williams, who hit the 3-pointer that forced overtime, knocked in a shot to give Texas Tech an 85-83 advantage with just 7.3 seconds remaining in overtime.
Rather than call a timeout, John Calipari decided to let the Razorbacks go on offense in a moment that would decide his team’s NCAA Tournament fate.
Guard DJ Wagner ran down the court, dribbled the ball into traffic, and threw up a contested jumper off the side of the rim as the Razorbacks season came to a close.
After the game, he told reporters, “I usually let that go,” Calipari said.
“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.”
