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Cal vs Pitino, what's your thoughts, it's going to happen Saturday

I really don't want Bama auburn or Duke to win so I'm hoping the Johnny's can be there to knock them out, don't want too many high quality teams to lose before Duke loses lol.
Yeah I want all the top favorites to keep winning as long as Duke is around. I'm even fine with Houston continuing to advance in our region. If we make it that far and get the chance to play them, so be it. I don't want a Duke cakewalk to the title. At least make them face Bama starting in the Elite 8.
 
Rick Pitino also beat Calipari at UMass as the UK Coach in the 1996 Final 4. Unfortunately for us though, the last meeting of a Cal vs Pitino matchup was a loss with Bam, Monk and Fox. Point being, I don't buy this narrative with Cal anymore that he always shows up and wins in every game that is big for his ego. Sometimes it works in his favor when Arkansas won this year as Kentucky did not have Butler and Carr was playing through pain still coming off the bench at this point. If this narrative around Cal were to be true all of the time, shouldn't have lost twice to Calhoun in 2010-11. Shouldn't have lost to Pearl in the Elite 8 after Auburn lost their best player in 2019 and Kentucky had two wins in the regular season with a 27-point ass busting over Auburn in Rupp. Two guys he also despises. That is the frustrating part about Cal here and all of the shortcomings in the NCAA Tournament in the back half of his UK tenure.
 
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I haven’t watched much of St Johns, but the announcers keep describing them as a poor shooting team. Seems like that would be a disadvantage in basketball.
 
If Aidoo keeps playing like he has--St. John's will have problems.

They will really frustrate Wagner and Fland will be the wildcard. He and Richmond are built to play against St. John's--but DJ will be forced to go right and make 3's.
i agree. except wagner not turning it over is probably the key to the game by itself, whether he’s scoring or not. like tonight, he didn’t score in the second half, but he only had 1 turnover. he’s going to have to play the ball control game of his life. if he does i think arkansas is probably going to win. unless cal gets in the way. a lot of variables, but we know ball control is key against a pitino team.

personally, i’m going for saint john’s. as a coach i think pitino is pretty much as good as it gets. he probably should be coach of the year.
 
St. John's is a top 5 team for a reason. If you all asked yourselves who would win a match up between SJU/ARK prior to the bracket coming out, most would pick St. John's. Nothing has changed other than Boogie Fland coming back, though the loss of Thiero outweighs his return.
 
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St. John’s has not played one team this year currently in the KenPom top 25. Marquette is #26. They are not going to look as good as East Coast folks think they are Saturday imo.
 
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Multiple wins over Creighton, Marquette and UConn all ahead of Arkansas and Xavier 2 spots behind in the KenPom rankings.
 
St. John’s has not played one team this year currently in the KenPom top 25. Marquette is #26. They are not going to look as good as East Coast folks think they are Saturday imo.
arkansas could play above them, literally. but they have to make good decisions, draw defenders, not over penetrate and not turn it over. it’s asking a lot. then again, it may just come down to whether or not saint john’s can score enough.
 
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arkansas could play above them, literally. but they have to make good decisions, draw defenders, not over penetrate and not turn it over. it’s asking a lot. then again, it may just come down to whether or not saint john’s can score enough.
I like Arkansas to win. If they lose, it will still be close imo.
 
So I wasn't aware that these two weren't friends.. I thought they were on pretty good terms with each other, no? I must have missed something.
 
I think it all comes down to how they are calling it in the first 4 minutes. If they are letting them play I think it helps St John, if not Ark will give them fits by driving it hard and living on the foul line. Of course that could play the other way as well as St Johns likes to drive it too. I think its a tossup game. Big Z could be the difference, didnt play much last night because he was a bad matchup for the stronger Dickerson but he can stand out there and float around for some 3s tomorrow and if he's hitting could tilt it Arks way.
 
I think Rick gets it done.

Cal feels like he needs to do this to settle an old score with Rick.

Rick may be feeling some of that. But I bet he’s also seeing this the same way a lot of us see it. One last chance for him to play the hero for BBN and send our current nemesis home packing. That’s a much stronger motivation. I think it makes the difference in the game.
 
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Rick Pitino also beat Calipari at UMass as the UK Coach in the 1996 Final 4. Unfortunately for us though, the last meeting of a Cal vs Pitino matchup was a loss with Bam, Monk and Fox. Point being, I don't buy this narrative with Cal anymore that he always shows up and wins in every game that is big for his ego. Sometimes it works in his favor when Arkansas won this year as Kentucky did not have Butler and Carr was playing through pain still coming off the bench at this point. If this narrative around Cal were to be true all of the time, shouldn't have lost twice to Calhoun in 2010-11. Shouldn't have lost to Pearl in the Elite 8 after Auburn lost their best player in 2019 and Kentucky had two wins in the regular season with a 27-point ass busting over Auburn in Rupp. Two guys he also despises. That is the frustrating part about Cal here and all of the shortcomings in the NCAA Tournament in the back half of his UK tenure.
He definitely doesn't win every game, but at least he will TRY. Honestly, if they had been playing someone like Lipscomb last night instead of Kansas they would have gotten punked.
 
Rick will be chomping at the bit. I expect Pitino to try not only win but make it ugly as possible. They CANNOT bring the same energy they brought in last nights first half to make it happen though
I've watched a lot of St John's games this year and I'd say they brought good energy against Omaha even in the first half. Sometimes it takes awhile for their offense to click but they play good defense for 40 minutes.
Omaha was playing great and got some easy baskets in the first half but St John's was also doing their thing.
In the Big East, St John's got down big some games only to grind out a comfortable win by the end.
When Omaha balled out in the first half but couldn't build a lead...I knew they were cooked .
 
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I believe Cals roster just has too much of a talent advantage.When you break down individual talent….there aren’t many teams with more. Maybe just Duke . Arkansas will take this one .
 
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