Rece Davis fires back at John Calipari after response about Arkansas' shooting struggles vs. St. John's

ESPN’s Rece Davis fired back at John Calipari, in a fun way of course, following Arkansas’ shooting woes in a win over St. John’s. Despite struggling, Calipari and crew beat St. John’s 75-66 to advance to the Sweet 16.

As Calipari noted, you don’t have to make every single shot, but you got to make the ones that count. The Red Storm couldn’t keep up in that regard.

So Calipari got the last laugh and advanced with his team. But that didn’t stop Davis from getting a bit of a jab in.

“Guys yesterday, we went two for 19 from the three … What are you talking about,” Calipari said on College GameDay. “Now as we move forward, I said we can’t have those kind of shooting nights or your season’s over. You don’t have to make 10 or 11 out of 19. You don’t have to make them all, but you can’t miss them all.”

Perhaps Davis will talk to Calipari again following the Sweet 16. If Arkansas advances to the Elite Eight, the two can crack more jokes.

John Calipari, Rece Davis have friendly spar

“I’ve been really, really nice and not snarky, both you and St John’s put that theory to the test for sure,” Davis responded. “John, congratulations, man. I wish you well. Very happy for you, and look forward to talking to you soon.”

Calipari and the Razorbacks settled in the second half to finish out a hard fought win on Saturday. Now, the No. 3 seed Texas Tech awaits.

“You know, 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. “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.

“Rick did a great job with his team all year. If they made a few shots, they would probably beat us. We were fortunate to get out, but I’m proud of these guys and all of them here had to overcome stuff and they did. They did because they’re good guys, they’ve been raised right and they knew they finally, not at the beginning of the year, that we absolutely need each other or we’re going down together and they became one heartbeat. They figured out that if I worry more about the team and less about myself, man, I play better. It took time.”