Arkansas came painfully close to toppling No. 3 Texas Tech in a thrilling 85-83 overtime loss in the Sweet 16 of the men's NCAA tournament Thursday night, a game that saw coach John Calipari stick to his roots in even the most clutch moments.

After Texas Tech crawled their way back into the contest having trailed by as many as 16 points in the second half, the game was coming down to the wire in overtime. Red Raiders' Darrion Williams put his team up by two with 7.3 seconds remaining on the clock, and Arkansas, who still had a timeout, decided to go for it in the heat of the moment.

Razorbacks guard D.J. Wagner would ultimately miss the game-tying shot, and Texas Tech completed the wildest comeback of the tournament thus far.

Many fans scratched their heads at why Calipari declined to call a timeout before his team's final possession of the game. The Razorbacks coach has historically let his players play throughout his career, but this seemed to be a time when Arkansas could have used a breather to draw up a better play with their Elite Eight hopes on the line.

Calipari spoke about his decision not to call a timeout after the game:

"In my career, I let that go," Calipari said. "Let the guy get to the rim. They're not going to foul you. With that kind of time, just me, you call a timeout, now you've got to worry about what he's doing, how he's playing, the inbound, what are you doing.

"So I usually let that go. Now, because it ended the way it did, yeah, I wish I would have called a timeout. But 99 percent of the time, I let that go."

Plenty of college hoops fans still pointed the finger at Calipari for Arkansas' meltdown:


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This article was originally published on www.si.com as John Calipari Ripped by Fans for Head-Scratching Move in Arkansas’ Loss to Texas Tech.