John Calipari reacts to Arkansas surviving first-round SEC Tournament game vs. South Carolina on late free throws

First-year Arkansas head coach John Calipari has been here before, not that it makes white-knuckling the closing seconds of Wednesday’s 72-68 win over South Carolina in the opening game of the 2025 SEC Tournament any easier.

The Razorbacks built a commanding 47-30 halftime lead after closing out the final 2:41 of the first half on an 11-0 run, and led by as many as 20 points with 17 minutes left in the seond half before the 16th-seeded Gamecocks mounted an incredible comeback to pull within a single possession with less than 5 minutes remaining.

But Arkansas senior guard Johnell Davis scored his team’s final six points over the last 32 seconds of the second half, including four straight free throws, as Calipari’s Razorbacks held off South Carolina and advance to Thursday’s second-round matchup vs. No. 8-seed Ole Miss (1 pm ET).

During a postgame visit to the SEC Network set, a relieved Calipari made it clear this was just the beginning for his squad — though they don’t have to make it as close next time.

“We won. That’s it,” Calipari said on the SEC Network set. “I mean, we’ve done this a bunch this year … 16-, 18-(point lead) ready to bury somebody, and then we get a little bit tentative. You ready for this statement? Guys tried to pay perfect. You’re not going to be perfect. Go make plays.”

John Calipari: Arkansas has ‘become one heartbeat’

Junior forward Trevon Brazile led four Arkansas players in double-figures with 16 points, followed by 14 apiece from Davis and senior forward Jonas Aidoo, who remains a key figure despite coming off the bench for the Razorbacks.

“The whole team has (come together), we’ve become one heartbeat. You know why? We had to,” Calipari said. “We were dying and so they came together, and everybody … like I (asked Aidoo), ‘Why are you playing like this?’ and he said, ‘I don’t want it to end.’

“So now whether it’s DJ (Wagner), Nelly (Davis), Billy (Richmond III), Karter (Knox), they’re all playing together. But, again, this kind of stuff going forward, you know, come on now. Some of it you look at and you go, ‘what in the world are you thinking?’ A good group of guys, they love each other, they’re playing good. We’ll see.”

Because, as Calipari knows all-too-well, Arkansas will need a total team effort to make a run in this week’s SEC Tournament, especially given the Razorbacks’ tenuous place on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

“A bunch of it is understanding that if I can get (Aidoo) to play at his best, and him and him and him, then our ceiling is (high). Now they just have to build confidence together,” Calipari concluded. “So a lot of stuff we do is to build up individual players, get them to play the way they’ve got to play to be their best version (of themselves). And then, as the year goes on, we start getting better. … This group, I’m so happy we’re still playing, get another game. Let’s go. Who’s next?”