"I should've called the timeout": When John Calipari admitted his mistake after Kentucky crashed out of Sweet 16 in March Madness

John Calipari coached the Kentucky Wildcats for 15 seasons from 2009 to 2024. While he led the program to the national title in 2012, there were instances when Calipari took blame for the team's failures in March Madness.

In March 2018, after Kentucky suffered a shock 61-58 loss to Kansas State in the Sweet 16, Calipari discussed his coaching error in the post-game press conference.

"Congratulations to Kansas State, they played well," Calipari said. "They played a kind of physical game and did what they had to do. Shot 35% and won a basketball game, so my hat's off to them. I'm proud of my team, we had our chance to win.

"We didn't play particularly well for us, but still had a chance to win. I should have called that timeout late with 19 seconds to go. But we had worked on something, and I thought we could catch them off guard. Veteran team, should have called a timeout. Can't put that on these guys, that's right on my shoulders."

Calipari's Kentucky was the No. 5 seed, while Kansas State was the No. 9 seed. The defeat was considered one of the worst during Calipari's era at UK, simply because the Wildcats had assembled a team that was tipped to go all the way to the national championship game.

Apart from winning the national title in 2012, Calipari also coached Kentucky to six regular-season titles and six SEC Tournament titles.

John Calipari suffers elimination from Sweet 16 for the first time with Arkansas

NCAA Basketball: Arkansas Razorbacks HC John Calipari - Source: Imagn

John Calipari's first season at Arkansas also ended in a narrow 85-83 defeat to No. 3 seed Texas Tech in the Sweet 16 on Thursday. The No. 10 seed Razorbacks had previously upset No. 7 seed Kansas in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before upsetting No. 2 seed St. John's in the second round.

Nonetheless, this Sweet 16 exit was a learning experience for Calipari in his first year at Arkansas, unlike the rather humiliating exit from the competition at Kentucky in 2018.