John Calipari is heading to the Sweet 16 for the 16th time, and this one could be the sweetest of all.

Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks beat longtime nemesis Rick Pitino and West Region No. 2 seed St. John’s 75-66 on Saturday in Providence, R.I., sending their itinerant coach to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament with his fourth school.

Billy Richmond III scored 16 points and Karter Knox had 15 for the 10th-seeded Razorbacks, who sent Kansas and their Hall of Fame coach Bill Self home from the “Region of Coaches” in the first round.

But the victory over his longtime rival was especially sweet for Calipari, who brought the Razorbacks (22-13) back to the tournament in his first season in Fayetteville despite early-season injuries that left them 0-5 to start the Southeastern Conference schedule.

“I told them, ‘This is as rewarding as a year I’ve had, based on how far we’ve come,’” he said.

Zuby Ejiofor had 23 points and 12 rebounds for Big East champion St. John’s (31-5). Conference player of the year RJ Luis Jr. had nine points, half his season average, on 3-of-17 shooting.

“They outplayed us. They deserve to move on and we don’t,” Pitino said. “That’s what March Madness is all about. No matter how good a regular season you have, you play this way, you’re going to get beat.”

Pitino’s history in Providence — he took the Friars to the 1987 Final Four — gave him a home-court advantage as he arrived in March Madness with an unprecedented sixth school.

So many of those teams were built with a full-court defense and 3-point shooting.

St. John’s, which beat Omaha in the first round, had the No. 1 defense in the country this season to win the Big East, returning to the tournament for the first time since 2019 with a No. 2 seed that was its best in 25 years.

But the Red Storm’s shooting deserted them on Saturday and they became the first team seeded fourth or better to exit what’s been a chalky tournament so far.

“Rick did a good job with his team all year,” Calipari said. “If they made a few shots, they probably beat us. We were fortunate to get out.”

The teams combined to make four 3-pointers on 41 attempts, with St. John’s shooting 28% from the floor overall.

Texas Tech 77, Drake 64 >> Darrion Williams scored a season-high 28 points, JT Toppin had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and the No. 3-seeded Red Raiders dominated the 11th-seeded Bulldogs in Wichita, Kan.

Elijah Hawkins added 16 points for the Red Raiders (27-8), who denied the Bulldogs their first Sweet 16 trip in more than five decades and will play No. 10 seed Arkansas in the region semifinals Thursday night at Chase Center.

Bennett Stirtz scored 21 points for Drake (31-4), which was outscored 50-20 inside by the Red Raiders, and had its eight-game winning streak come to an end.

Toppin had 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting in the first half.

Midwest Region

Purdue 76, McNeese St. 62 >> Trey Kaufman-Renn had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and the fourth-seeded Boilermakers used a fast start to roll to a win over the 12th-seeded Cowboys in Providence.

Fletcher Loyer added 15 points for Purdue (24-11), which advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.

Sincere Parker had 17 points to lead McNeese (28-7).

McNeese came out in the 2-3 zone that was so successful during its first-round win over Clemson.

But Purdue hit 7 of its first 9 field goals and 3 of its first 4 3-point attempts to build an early double-digit advantage. A pair of three-plus minute scoring droughts by the Cowboys and runs of 10-0 and 9-0 by the Boilermakers helped Purdue grow its lead as high as 36-14 in the first half.

South Region

Auburn 82, Creighton 70 >> Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said a trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament was no sure thing, and experienced Creighton made his top-seeded team work for it before the Tigers found their defensive mojo in the second half and closed out the ninth-seeded Bluejays in Lexington, Ky.

Tahaad Pettiford scored 16 of his 23 points after halftime and Chad Baker-Mazara added 17 points for Auburn, which held Creighton scoreless for more than six minutes during a 10-0 second-half run. Pettiford scored six points during that burst to push the Tigers to a 68-54 lead.

The No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, Auburn (30-5) moves on to theregion semifinals in Atlanta next weekend, where it will face Michigan. Pearl’s team was upset in the first round by Yale last year and he had not taken Auburn past the second round since it reached its only Final Four in 2019.

Senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 18 points in his final game for the Bluejays (25-11).

Michigan 91, Texas A&M 79 >> The fifth-seeded Wolverines are going back to the Sweet 16 a year after a 24-loss season, using Roddy Gayle’s surge to beat the fourth-seeded Aggies in Denver.

Gayle scored 21 of his season-high 26 points in the second half to help the restocked Wolverines overcome a 10-point deficit.

Vladislav Goldin had 23 points and 12 rebounds as Michigan (27-9) overcame another big day for Pharrel Payne, who led Texas A&M with 26 points.

In two NCAA games at Ball Arena, Payne scored 51 points on 20-of-25 shooting and pulled down 15 rebounds.

The Wolverines, who made a surprising run to the Big Ten Tournament title, won for the fifth time in nine days. The fourth-seeded Aggies (23-11) were playing for just the second time in nine days, but they were the ones who looked exhausted at elevation by game’s end.

N.C. State hires Wade

McNeese coach Will Wade has signed a six-year deal to take over as N.C. State’s next coach, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

Wade’s two-year tenure in Lake Charles, Louisiana marked a successful climb back after being fired at LSU in 2022 because of allegations of recruiting violations.

Wade will replace Kevin Keatts, who was fired after eight seasons on March 9. That came less than a year after he guided N.C. State to its first Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title since 1987 and its first Final Four trip since an improbable 1983 NCAA title run.