SAN FRANCISCO — In an NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament sorely lacking in Cinderella stories, coach John Calipari has the unusual role of being the closest thing to it.
After routinely taking powerhouse teams in his first decade at Kentucky to the Sweet 16 and beyond, Calipari has surprisingly done the same in his first season at Arkansas with the 10th-seeded Razorbacks (22-13) set to take on No. 3 seed Texas Tech (27-8) in the West Region semifinals Thursday night as the only double-digit seed remaining in the tournament.
“My guess is other than a fan of Arkansas, no one is picking us to win the game,” Calipari said Wednesday. “But the great news in this tournament, you’ve got to play the games.”
Top-seeded Florida (32-4) will take on No. 4 seed Maryland (27-8) in Thursday’s other Sweet 16 game at the Chase Center, the home of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
Calipari is preparing for his 16th appearance in the NCAA regional semifinals, having previously taken Massachusetts, Memphis and Kentucky this deep into March Madness. Lon Kruger and Eddie Sutton are the only other coaches to get this far with four programs in the NCAA D-I men’s tourney.