Arkansas falls apart late in Sweet 16 loss to Arizona with ejection, bad fouls and a John Calipari technical

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John Calipari and Razorbacks unraveled fast on Thursday night in San Jose. (AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Arkansas completely fell apart on Thursday night in San Jose.

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The Razorbacks had a player ejected, another player foul out and head coach John Calipari receive a technical foul down the stretch of what ended up being a blowout 109-88 loss to No. 1 Arizona in the Sweet 16. The mistakes kept compounding on each other, and made the NCAA tournament exit that much worse. 

With about seven minutes left in the game, Arkansas guard Billy Richmond drilled Arizona forward Ivan Kharchenkov hard as he tried to fight through a screen. Kharchenkov went flying down to the court and sliding toward the benches. 

Officials called a foul quickly, and ended up hitting Richmond with a Flagrant 2 foul. That triggered his automatic ejection from the game.

Richmond finished with 13 points and five rebounds. Arizona was leading by 19 points at the time and was already well on its way to the blowout win.

To make matters worse, Arkansas forward Nick Pringle fouled out of the game not even 20 seconds later. Pringle’s fifth foul wasn’t the egregious one, but it was rather his third and fourth fouls a few minutes prior that he could have avoided completely.

Pringle ran in and shoved Arizona center Motiejus Krivas hard in the back while trying to get a rebound, and was immediately called for the foul. Then he grabbed the ball and slammed it hard on the court. That resulted in a technical foul, too. 

Arizona pulled ahead by 24 points after those two free throws. Pringle finished with six points and a rebound.

Then, for good measure, after something was said either by Calipari or by someone on his bench, Calipari was assessed a technical foul. It’s unclear what was said or by whom, but it clearly was enough to draw the penalty. 

Now again, none of these penalties or blunders individually led to the loss. Arkansas was already down by double digits when they all occurred, and there was likely no climbing back into the game regardless. Arizona looked like every bit of a national championship contender in the 21-point win. 

But the mistakes ensured that the comeback wasn’t going to happen. Arkansas, in a form unlike the dominant Calipari teams from earlier in his career, completely unraveled. 

Arizona will now advance to take on No. 2 Purdue in the Elite Eight on Saturday. Calipari and Arkansas will head home from the Sweet 16 for a second straight year.

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