John Calipari, Arkansas appear to be peaking at right time: ‘We’ve grown a lot’

John Fanta

College Basketball Broadcaster and Reporter

Johnell Davis isn’t afraid of the big moment.

Arkansas‘ senior guard, who spent four seasons at Florida Atlantic and helped lead the Owls on a memorable Final Four run back in 2023, had the ball in his hands with less than two minutes remaining and the Razorbacks holding onto a 68-67 lead over Kansas in Thursday’s NCAA Tournament opening-round game. A moment like this is why Davis was brought to Fayetteville, to help John Calipari’s Arkansas team meet the March moment.

“I yelled at him, ‘shoot this ball!'” Calipari exclaimed.

Davis let it fly from the right wing and drilled the biggest shot of the game, sending the Razorbacks’ bench and the sea of red at a soldout Amica Mutual Pavilion into a frenzy. He went on to hit all four of his free throws, playing the role of closer in a 79-72 victory for the 10th-seeded Hogs.

“This was very special, and the first game is always the hardest game when you’re making a run,” Davis said. “I tried to install it into the guys, telling them to keep fighting. When they went on their run, I kept saying, ‘it’s OK because we’re going to make our run too,’ and we did.”

For Davis, it hasn’t been the Hollywood script that he necessarily envisioned when coming to Arkansas. Frankly, this season hasn’t been what Calipari or anyone in the Arkansas program envisioned, with the Razorbacks receiving a 10-seed after fighting for their lives to get into the NCAA Tournament after an 0-5 start to SEC play and an 11-7 record overall. Throw in leading scorer Adou Thiero being out for the last seven games, two months without five-star freshman guard Boogie Fland, and the bear that was the 14-bid Southeastern Conference, and it’s been a roller-coaster ride for the Hogs. But this team has won six of its last eight games, and Davis said it’s a sign of their evolution.

“We’ve grown a lot,” said Davis, who scored 18 points in the victory. “We had our ups and downs like everybody else, but I feel like the downfall we had made us closer. I love this group because of that.”

Davis was the closer, but the revelation of the night was Jonas Aidoo, who went for a season-high 22 points and exposed Hunter Dickinson defensively while also holding Kansas’ star to 4-of-13 from the floor in his final college game. You could sense a hunger in Calipari’s group, who looked like they wanted to prove those who walked on the grave of Arkansas early in the season wrong.

“We all know we have something to prove,” said Aidoo, a transfer from Tennessee. “We went through a lot of adversity, injuries, missing players, and we let a couple games go. Starting 0-5 in the conference. That helped us build our confidence, build our strength and get us ready mentally for the rest of the season.”

Calipari added that his team “gutted this game out,” overcoming a 12-2 run in a five-minute span due to the Jayhawks going to a zone.

“I thought I prepared us for zone, but I did a poor job,” Calipari said. “But we learned about ourselves, because in the past, we’d just give Adou Thiero the ball in the middle. So, we tried to do the same thing with other players, but they’re not Adou.

“We made shots, made free throws, came up with balls, defended when they had to, and I’m proud of them. We’ve done this all year. We’ve been up and we’ve let people back in, and we’ve been down then come back and won. We’ve done both.”

The Hogs have stayed the course, possess the guards to break a defense down, and they’ve grown defensively with a big man on the rise in Aidoo. Could it be the start of a run ahead of a date with Rick Pitino and St. John’s on Saturday?

“I know one thing … we’re peaking at the right time,” Aidoo said.

And as a result, Calipari is 40 minutes away from his first Sweet 16 since 2019, shedding off some past first-round demons in recent years with a statement win over a veteran-laden Kansas team.

John Fanta is a national college basketball broadcaster and writer for FOX Sports. He covers the sport in a variety of capacities, from calling games on FS1 to serving as lead host on the BIG EAST Digital Network to providing commentary on The Field of 68 Media Network. Follow him at @John_Fanta.

Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.

FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience