College Hall of Famer had no doubt Hogs were going to win basketball national title

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — This past spring a college basketball Hall of Famer watched as the Arkansas Razorbacks took down Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks, Rick Pitino and No. 2 seed media darling St. John's Red Storm, then ran out to a big double-digit lead against No. 3 seed Texas Tech.

As the Hogs' lead extended to 16 points over the Red Raiders with less than 10 minutes to play, he was sure as to what he was seeing. Arkansas had caught fire at the right time and was well on its way to winning a national championship.

While Razorbacks coach John Calipari paced the sideline, "nail in the coffin" saying firmly holstered on his hip for postgame interviews, he was certain he had a team of destiny and there was nothing anyone could do to stop them. Then the wheels fell off in the second half, setting up a heart-breaking 85-83 overtime loss.

"They threw us in the coffin last year, and they closed the top," Calipari said, pulling out his familiar phrase in a promotional appearance on 103.7 The Buzz in Little Rock earlier this week. "They just didn't nail it. We kicked it off, and all of a sudden, by the end of the year, I thought we could win a national title when we got by Kansas and St. John's. I'm like, 'This thing's on! This is on now!'

Calipari knew as well as anyone that leads in big events are meant to disappear. He was just too caught up in what he believed his team was doing to accept that as a possibility in the heat of battle.

"And again, I've done this a long time," Calipari said. "I know when you get a hot team, just, leads in college and pro sports evaporate more than they've ever evaporated in the past, and I've done this a long time. A 15-point lead in the NCAA tournament, you won the game. Even if it was early in the playoffs, you get an 18-20 point lead in NBA, it's over. Football, the same thing. All of a sudden, no lead is safe."

Even though Calipari knows in recent years entire college teams have been prone to go inexplicably cold while opponents take giant bites at leads with streaky three-point shooting, he has a different culprit in mind for what kept the Hogs from living out a second national championship dream.

"I still think social media plays a part of it," Calipari said. "The directness that you walk in the locker room at halftime you need, you know? I mean, it's just it's made it different for the teams and the mentality, but exciting for the fans."

It should be noted that coming out of halftime, Arkansas slowly added to its lead in a steady drip approach. The lead would get to 14, then back to 10, back up to 15, then back to 12, then up to 16 at around the 12 minute mark, then bounce back up to 16 again with just over nine minutes left.

Instead, Arkansas began the final 10 minutes by going four minutes without a point while Texas Tech pounded the inside to cut the lead to single digits. Still, the Hogs built the lead back to double-digits and held it there with just over three minutes remaining.

However, rather than take the air out of the ball, Arkansas missed a 3-point jumper 10 seconds into the shot clock and then jacked up another quick three just a few seconds later after Trevon Brazile came up with the offensive rebound, missing both shots and only draining 19 seconds in two possessions.

Then Texas Tech's Christian Anderson hit a pair of threes and power forward Darrion Williams, who has since transferred to North Carolina State, knocked down a three to force overtime prior to Arkansas missing a jumper with one second left.

While it's hard to figure how social media truly had anything to do with the Razorbacks blowing a huge lead, it's clear many local social media accounts agree Calipari may have that same feeling of an impending championship come tournament time this season.

He was on the radio encouraging fans to attend a scrimmage game to be held in Hot Springs in Bank OZK Arena at 3 p.m. this coming Sunday. There, they will get to see a full squad face off filled with an unusually high number of veteran returners from last season's team given the current transfer portal climate.

The Hogs attempted to pull off a similar event last year, but only had five healthy players. That's why this will be a first for the program, despite it being a repeat appearance in the Spa City.

"I just believe you got to take the team to the state," Calipari said. "... They can't all just come to campus. They can't all just get tickets. But it's still their team, and I'm still their coach, so we've done what we did last year, taking the team out, but only had five players because we were so injured. So this year we got the team. We're ready to go, so it'll be an intra-squad scrimmage, but I also keep switching the line-ups, so we'll all get to see different line-ups play together throughout the time.

Getting out like this to various arenas around the state to meet pockets of fans the players might never see otherwise is a part of why Calipari says he has been able to increase player retention., which is why events like this will continue.

"You want the kids to really connect to what we're doing here, so that if they're coming back to college for another year, they stay right?" Calipari said. " I mean, we just had four players stay. And they could have all gone to another school, but they stayed here because they wanted to play for this program in this state."

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