How Arkansas rose from the ashes to deliver the tournament's most stunning upset

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – John Calipari still has the magic touch. This time, though, it came with "Woo Pig Sooie" being yelled in the background. 

"We thought our season was dead about 10 times this season," one fan blurted out as Calipari was wrapping up his postgame radio interview at center court. That fan was one of the many Arkansas faithful who waited for their coach to get done with his media responsibilities, and when the interview wrapped up and the headset came off, it was a Razorbacks party in Providence.

There were fist bumps, there were waves to the crowd, and there was a tearful embrace between Calipari and his wife, Ellen, and daughter, Megan.

The family has been a part of six Final Four trips, a national title in 2012, and countless other moments, but to go through what they've been through this past year in moving away from Lexington, starting the year 0-5 in the SEC, and then being the subject of a heap of criticism across the college basketball world? 

"We've all been through a lot the last year," Calipari told FOX Sports. "And then you're 0-5, and then 1-6 in the SEC. They gave us a two percent chance to make the NCAA Tournament after that – two percent! And now, not only did we make it, we advanced." 

They did so by Calipari giving his rival a taste of his own medicine, as the Razorbacks ended Rick Pitino's storybook season at St. John's with a 75-66 victory over the Red Storm. You would have thought the Hogs possessed the nation's No. 1 defense on Saturday in Providence, as Calipari's team held St. John's to a measly 28% shooting from the floor and 2-of-22 from beyond the arc.

"Coach [Calipari] told us there's two dogs and one bone – we wanted the bone, it's as simple as that," Arkansas freshman forward