March Madness Day Three: Calipari won the breakup
03/23/2025
By Chris Marler
Do you hear that? It’s silence. Well, almost.
If you listen closely enough you can hear the heavy sighs and faint clicking of the delete button for drafted tweets from the anti-SEC crowd after Saturday of March Madness.
Of the four teams that played, the league punched three tickets to the Sweet 16. The only one that didn’t, lost to a power four conference champion. The others all took care of business with four more teams looking to do the same this Sunday.
Here’s a recap of the SEC Saturday slate in the NCAA tournament.
John Calipari won the breakup
Regardless of what happens on Sunday between Kentucky and Illinois, John Calipari has officially won the breakup between him and Big Blue Nation. Admittedly, I wasn’t pulling for either side, and it’s perfectly fine to be happy that both Cal and Kentucky are now in better situations.
That being said, the last two months have to feel like a dream for John Calipari. After starting SEC play 0-5, Arkansas finished the regular season on an 8-5 run and got into the tournament. Few teams have had to face the injury adversity that Arkansas did, but getting freshman phenom Boogie Fland back for the tournament has been huge.
Arkansas is back in the Sweet 16 after defeating preseason No. 1 Kansas and 31-win Big East champion St. John’s. The win over the Johnnies has to be nice, but for Calipari I’m sure beating Pitino was a much bigger win overall.
He won at Rupp and beat Pitino. In his wildest dreams I don’t know Cal could’ve envisioned this.
— Tom Hart (@tom_hart) March 22, 2025
Auburn is still Auburn
The matchup against Creighton is one that felt like it could be an upset. Auburn played with their food too much in round one. Also, Creighton is not a team most want to catch in that spot. However, reports of Auburn peaking too soon and not returning to its December and January form were highly premature.
Auburn looked tremendous in the second half against the Blue Jays. After finding themselves in a tight back and forth for most of the first 25 minutes of the game, Auburn did what Auburn does and went on a 20-4 run. It sounds odd to say this in regards to the No. 1 overall seed, but that was a huge win. More importantly, it was a massive and much needed confidence boost.
Here’s to another weekend of free breakfast for Dylan Cardwell and company.
Dylan Cardwell’s message to the team:
“We want to win and we have to do whatever it takes. If you’re not going to do whatever it takes, get out.”
Cardwell jokes: “If we win, we keep having free [hotel] breakfast. If we lose, we won’t have free breakfast from here on out…” pic.twitter.com/D5n0IZUjA7
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) March 21, 2025
Tennessee and Texas A&M
There wasn’t much of a story for either of these games. On Saturday, both teams delivered vintage performances, staying true to their regular-season identities. However, only one of those was positive.
Texas A&M struggled to put their opponent away and after getting off to a great start, they struggled down the stretch. Insert a “just like football” joke here. Regardless, A&M played just like they did over the regular season sample size we had seen all year.
So did Tennessee. That’s why the Vols are headed to another Sweet 16 and the Aggies are headed home.
