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Arkansas stunned St. John's in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament on Saturday. The Razorbacks aren't necessarily a Cinderella story however. There is certainly a storyline to be had here.
John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks beat longtime nemesis Rick Pitino and No. 2 seed St. John’s 75-66 on Saturday, sending their itinerant coach to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament with his fourth school.
Billy Richmond III scored 16 points and Karter Knox had 15 for the 10th-seeded Razorbacks, who sent Kansas and their Hall of Fame coach Bill Self home from the “Region of Coaches” in the first round.
But the victory over his longtime rival was especially sweet for Calipari, who brought the Razorbacks (22-13) back to the tournament in his first season in Fayetteville despite early-season injuries that left them 0-5 to start the Southeastern Conference schedule. Arkansas will face third-seeded Texas Tech in the West Region semifinals in San Francisco.
“I told them, ‘This is as rewarding as a year I’ve had, based on how far we’ve come,’” he said.
Arkansas was a +7 underdog in this one.
Despite being a No. 6 seed to Wisconsin's No.3, BYU beating the Badgers Saturday hardly qualified as an upset. Wisconsin was a mere 1 point favorite in this one.
The BYU Cougars led the entire game Saturday but still had to make one, final defensive stop against Wisconsin's irrepressible guard, John Tonje, to seal a 91-89 victory over the Badgers and the program's first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2011 — the days of Jimmer Fredette.
“You watched the game and you’re kind of like, ‘How did we get to a two-point game here, you know?’” said Fredette, who took things in from about 10 rows up in the stands in the same arena where he led BYU to its last Sweet 16 trip. “But look, I think that describes this team.”
Richie Saunders had 25 points and seven rebounds for the sixth-seeded Cougars, who will play Alabama or Saint Mary's next Thursday in Newark at the East Region.
Probably considered the biggest upset of the day Sunday, Florida knocking out the reigning champion UConn Huskies. It should be noted that the Gators were favorites to win this game but it was the end of an era, so to speak, for the Huskies.
It was the end of a 13-game tournament win streak. UConn had won the last two championships.
"There's some honor, I guess, in the way that this went down," UConn head coach Dan Hurley said. "It's a tough loss. We played in a manner that gave us a real chance to win. Credit Clayton. He made some NBA-level 3s off the dribble to beat us. It took that for somebody to put us down in this tournament after winning obviously a bunch in a row."
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