John Calipari working to ensure Arkansas still embraces underdog mentality entering Sweet 16

John Calipari loves the underdog role and wants to make sure Arkansas keeps that mentality for the rest of the tournament. It’s led to a lot of wins this season.

Arkansas, a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament, has the Sweet 16 against Texas Tech coming up. They’re the lone remaining “Cinderella” so you might as well embrace the underdog role.

Calipari and Arkansas beat No. 2 St. John’s in the second round, turning that part of the bracket upside down. While the team had expectations, not many expected the underdog role and that’s just fine with Calipari.

“Yeah, I’m fine with that,” Calipari said on The Dan Patrick Show. “Look, most of my career was shouldn’t, wouldn’t, can’t, won’t. I mean, we’ve been the underdog. You remember UMass, you came up and did some games, you went on the court, shot air balls, and, you know, some of the stuff there, and Memphis, the same thing. We had a pretty good run in Kentucky, and there was that eight, nine year period where, yeah, we were the one. But, you know, most of my career, I’ve been that. And so I’m fine in that role. I’m comfortable in the role. I’m just trying to make sure my team is comfortable in that role.”

Calipari doesn’t care how ugly it is if Arkansas wins. Heck, they’ve been rolling with that style lately.

“I’m just saying we’re the underdog,” Calipari said. “And every time they play in those kind of games, they play well, I think, look, we’re at that point in the year, the whole thing is, how do I get them to have that mindset that we had against St John’s? 

“Because, look, there’s two things happening. We went two for 19 from the three and gave up 28 offensive rebounds, but still won. We played to win. Don’t matter what happens, don’t matter they got a rebound, just keep playing and we keep them in that attitude and that mindset. It doesn’t mean you’re going to win, but it gives you a good chance to win.”

The comeback has been fantastic for Calipari and the Razorbacks. At one point in the season, Arkansas looked like a team that wasn’t close to the NCAA Tournament.

“If you went through the year, we went through when we were 0-5, when we were 1-6 and they said they got no chance of making the NCAA Tournament, when you’re playing games, you’re not worried about the other coach, it’s about survival,” Calipari said. “I wasn’t worried about matching with no chess game. I wasn’t out coaching. I didn’t care. It was about let’s just win, because what these kids went through, they deserved good to happen, because they came together. 

“They became one heartbeat and well what did you do? What did I do? They knew if they didn’t come together they were going to lose every game. And they figured this, you know what, I’m so worried about myself, if I worry about the team more than myself, maybe it’s easier, and they found out it was easier.”