Can Calipari's Preseason Chess Game Give Hogs Edge Needed in NCAA Tournament?

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — If a long held belief about how the NCAA Tournament pairings are put together is actual policy, then a bit of arduous scheduling by Hogs' head coach John Calipari may simply have been his attempt to remove chess pieces off the board.

It would be one of the greatest examples of playing the long game in college basketball history as he will have cleared off a ton of major threats to his Razorbacks while getting all kinds of credit for seeding by playing big name teams on neutral sites, basically either guauarteeing a Quad 1 win or a loss that wasn't going to hurt the Hogs in the selection committee's eyes.

However, if there truly is the added bonus of making sure the likes of Michigan State, Texas Tech or Houston can't pop up on Arkansas' schedule in the first weekend of the tournament, it's borderline brilliance and a great use of manipulation. At the very least he is daring the committee to go against perception.

Of course that only works if there is something to this. It's repeated a lot, but doesn't appear to be in writing. Of course that doesn't matter so long as it is in practice.

The Razorbacks had a short trip through the Tournament last year, making the Sweet 16 before losing, but Eric Musselman's deep runs and frequent NCAA appearances provides a solid amount of data for testing this theory.

Last year, Arkansas beat Kansas 85-69 in a charity event to start the season and played them as a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Arkansas won 79-72, then went on to beat No. 2 seed St. John's before dropping a heart-breaker to No. 3 seed Texas Tech.

While Kansas was sort of a repeat on the schedule, exhibition games don't count as real games. It might have actually been this coincidence that helped Calipari decide to stack his schedule with the full Elite 8 from last season.

Had he played Kansas in the regular season, he wouldn't have found himself staring down Bill Self in the opening round. Fortunately for him, Arkansas is kryptonite to Kansas in basketball.

The only example of a repeat from a regular season game in the NCAA Tournament comes from Musselman's first Elite 8 run and it took an insane Cinderella moment to make it happen.

Arkansas beat Oral Roberts on Dec. 20 in Bud Walton Arena, 87-76. The following spring, the Golden Eagles gave the Razorbacks all they could handle, 72-70, in the Sweet 16 as an improbable No. 15 seed.

However, that's certainly a rematch the committee couldn't have foreseen and it also took place during the second weekend, so the theory holds up.

The best part of the unofficial policy appearing to be true is Calipari got to test his Hogs against pairs of teams that had similar qualities which happened to be elite programs. What he found out against Duke and Florida is the Razorbacks aren't good enough on the interior to win a national championship if a team with strong backcourt players end up in their path.

While Calipari doesn't have the power to move the two biggest threats to a big run by the Hogs to the opposite side of the bracket, he has theoretically decreased the chances Duke and Florida might plow through Arkansas down low along the way.

There are at least two chances either team loses before the Razorbacks can face them, but odds are also high they won't meet until at least the Elite 8. After how things went Saturday night, most Razorbacks fans have moved this team down to a Sweet 16 level program. That means Calipari has possibly made it much easier to meet fan expectations.

The only downside is that leaves Michigan and Arizona, two teams with good size and power down low as possible obstacles, although it does cut the possibility from all four major problems, which helps in early preparation.

The way things are shaping out, whether the Hogs end up a No. 4 or No. 5 seed, they will face either Michigan or Arizona in the Sweet 16. It's not a promising draw, but at least Calipari made the death march a little easier that first weekend with a bit of preseason scheming.

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