John Calipari calls offensive rebounding Arkansas' Achilles' heel in loss to Texas Tech

The Arkansas Razorbacks fell in the Sweet Sixteen after a thriller of a game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders. In a back-and-forth battle that went to overtime, Razorbacks head coach John Calipari left the game questioning his team’s rebounding.

After the game, Calipari reflected on the culture that he had worked to build in his first season at Arkansas. In particular, after making a Sweet Sixteen run. He emphasized that he felt his team showed a “will to win” but that without improved rebounding it won’t matter moving forward as it hurt them in the NCAA Tournament.

“Well, I come back to a will to win,” John Calipari said. “I mean, like today we gave up a lead but we did that a bunch this year. Up 15 and all of a sudden, you turn around and it’s a two-point game. But they had a will to win. And even this game. I mean TB’s [Trevon Brazile] three. The way we started the half, the way we ended the half, and then the way we executed coming out. They did all the right stuff except we didn’t rebound, and that was a big difference in this game.”

Texas Tech finished the game with 51 rebounds compared to just 39 by Arkansas. That includes 22 offensive rebounds, double the 11 offensive rebounds that the Razorbacks snagged. In a game where both teams shot 41 percent and 41.5 percent from the field, those extra offensive opportunities ended up being massive.

John Calipari certainly wasn’t happy with how things went down on the boards. After all, he feels it’s what cost them a chance at playing in the Elite Eight. However, outside of that, he was happy with the intensity that his team played with throughout the game.

“But when you talk about how we guarded them, pretty good. They’re a good team. Field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage, our free-throw percentage,” Calipari said. “There was a lot of stuff — it was one of our Achilles’ heels, offensive rebounding against us. Last game it was 28 offensive rebounds.”

The Sweet Sixteen game against Texas Tech saw the Red Raiders make up for a seven-point halftime deficit to force overtime. There, the game stayed close, but Texas Tech was able to edge out Arkansas by a basket.

“I thought TB down the stretch came up with rebounds. We miss a free throw that made it a 3-point game. Now you’re, like, okay, it’s 12 seconds. A little too early to foul. A kid that was 1-for-9 makes it,” Calipari said. “And it was contested. I mean, sometimes that stuff is stuff that happens in these games.”

John Calipari will walk away from his first season at Arkansas with another trip to the Sweet Sixteen. Ultimately, he’ll want to make deeper runs in the future and that will come with fixing those issues, like having rebounding as an Achilles’ heel.