Arizona's Sweet 16 beatdown shows its ready for March Madness breakthrough
The Arizona Wildcats are on a warpath to the Final Four after dominating high-flying Arkansas in the Sweet 16.
SAN JOSE, CA — All John Calipari could do was sit there. His Arkansas team had been high flying all month. It was dunking like it was the “Lob City” Los Angeles Clippers, and shooting like it was the Golden State Warriors’ “Splash Bros.
” Darius Acuff Jr. was showing why he’s destined to be an NBA star , giving belief the coach could get the Hogs back in the Final Four. That was until he saw the bracket.
Before the tournament began, Calipari thought if there was one team he didn’t want to see, it was Arizona . He knew it was a bad matchup for his team, and if he was going to meet them on the court, the goal was to hope it could hang around long enough to turn the pressure on them. After Thursday, March 26, Calipari might as well have been Nostradamus, correctly predicting the unfortunate fate the Razorbacks faced, falling to top seed Arizona , 109-88 , in the Sweet 16.
It wasn’t just a loss, it was a beatdown. “Arizona is really good,” Calipari said. The nightcap in San Jose was billed as having the potential to blow the roof off of SAP Center with all the fireworks each team could light off.