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CBS announcer hammers officials for call against St. John's vs Arkansas

IMG_0985by:Griffin McVeigh•03/22/25•

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Rick Pitino
Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Arkansas and St. John’s are playing an incredible Round of 32 game in Providence with one overarching theme. Almost every second has been incredibly physical. Both teams are flying up and down the court, missing a ton of shots, and battling underneath for rebounds.

One certain play did bother CBS color analyst Steve Lappas enough to call out the officials. After an Arkansas three-point attempt went up, St. John’s star Zuby Ejiofor was called for a foul. when battling with Jonas Aidoo. Lappas did not agree with the call, especially with how the entire game has been called.

“I’ll tell you, Ejiofor has to be really, really careful now,” Lappas said. “… Wow. In this kind of game, I’m sorry — that’s not a good call.”

Quickly after Lappas was done making his point, Arkansas had already taken advantage. Boogie Fland threw one up to the rim and Trevon Brazile came down with it for a monster dunk. A big second-half sequence when St. John’s now finds itself down double digits. You can check out the full sequence here.

With how much these two are fighting, officiating is likely going to be a storyline down the stretch. Calls are going to be made both ways in which neither of them like. But at the end of the day, a great game is brewing with a massive Sweet Sixteen spot on the line.

Jay Bilas explains how Arkansas can take down St. John’s

No. 10-seed Arkansas is set to battle No. 2-seed St. John’s on Saturday afternoon in the latest installment John Calipari vs. Rick Pitino’s coaching rivalry. Calipari’s Razorbacks are the underdog to Pitino’s Red Storm head into the matchup, but it’s nothing Calipari isn’t used to, according to ESPN’s Jay Bilas.

Bilas compared it to Calipari’s ‘Refuse to Lose’ UMass teams. When his back is against the wall as an underdog, more often than not in his career Calipari has emerged on top. Still, Bilas noted a few key aspects of the game that Arkansas needs to control in order to pull off the upset.

“First and foremost, they’re going to need to rebound, because they have to get out and transition and play ahead of the St John’s defense,” Bilas said during an appearance on SportsCenter on Saturday. “They’re going to have to take care of the ball, because St John’s forces a lot of turnovers. But if you can’t rebound, you can’t run. They’ve got to rebound in order to run, so they got to get out and transition, and they have to drive the ball.

“Arkansas is not a great shooting team. They’re not going to knock in a bunch of threes against the St John’s defense. They’re going to have to put their head down and drive it, move the ball and then drive gaps, get it in the lane, and then attack the basket off the dribble. That’s going to get them to the foul line, where they’ve been most successful. That’s the most efficient place to score on a basketball floor.”

On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this report