Skip to main content
Join Now
Team Avatar
Arkansas

Arkansas basketball social media shreds Joe Lunardi after upset win over St. John's

ns_headshot_2024-clearby:Nick Schultz•03/22/25•

NickSchultz_7

Arkansas HC John Calipari vs. St. John's
© Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images

Heading into the 2025 NCAA Tournament, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi raised questions about John Calipari’s decision to play Boogie Fland after he missed most of the year with an injury. Arkansas is now heading to the Sweet 16, and the program’s X account took aim at Lunardi after Saturday’s upset of St. John’s.

The Razorbacks posted a clip of Lunardi discussing the decision to bring Fland back in time for March Madness. He noted Calipari is “in the Hall of Fame, and he knows better than I do” about that move.

The video then cut to a snippet from Calipari’s appearance on The Pat McAfee Show ahead of the first round. In the clip, he said, “What you said is true,” and Arkansas used that to troll Lunardi as the program heads to the Sweet Sixteen.

Calipari certainly noticed the caliber of coaches in Arkansas’ pod. Specifically with Kansas, he considers Self a friend, which is why he wasn’t necessarily looking forward to going directly against him.

“We’re here in Providence,” Calipari said on McAfee’s show. “A four-team tournament. Kansas, come on. Bill Self, he won his national championship against us and me. We won our national championship against them. So, we’ve won at Allen [Fieldhouse]. They had won at our place. Bill and I, when I left Kansas, he followed me at Kansas. So, he went into the role I was in.”

Arkansas and St. John’s both struggled mightily shooting the three during Saturday’s game, but a physical battle certainly lived up to the billing. Ultimately, the Razorbacks came out on top, and Calipari noted his team is also physical. That helped make the defense and help Arkansas overcome the 28 offensive rebounds allowed to St. John’s.

“There are some games we played this year where the other team said that was a physical team and I told them and reminded them of that,” Calipari said in his postgame press conference. “I know St. John’s is physical, too. The second thing we talked about at halftime is first five minutes of this half, we got to get them to call a time-out and these kids came out and executed, got some rebounds. Now, I don’t know of any team that I’ve coached in a while had 28 offensive — I take that back. Tennessee did. They had 28 offensive rebounds and we still won, which is crazy.”