An all-new basketball season starts Wednesday for the Arkansas Razorbacks as they kick off the SEC Tournament.
They are in a much better spot than expected.
Everything came together last Saturday when they beat Mississippi State and Georgia beat Vanderbilt, leaving the Razorbacks tied for ninth in the conference standings.
That may not sound great, but this is a team that started 0-5 in SEC play and even had a loss at LSU.
Despite injuries to two starters Arkansas went 8-5 in its last 13 games of conference play, and because it had beaten Georgia, Vanderbilt and Mississippi it won the tie-breaker. Earning the No. 9 seed means the Razorbacks will tip off at noon instead of later in the night.
When you are playing games on consecutive days it’s better to play early.
Plus they will face South Carolina, which means they can avenge their worst and most recent conference loss of the season when they shot a dud, according Coach John Calipari.
A win against the Gamecocks should mean something to the NCAA Tournament selection committee, the members of which already sequestered in an Indianapolis hotel.
The Razorbacks enter the SEC tournament with a NCAA Evaluation Tool ranking of No. 39, which isn’t great but at least two of the more knowledgeable predictors of the field of 68 think it is good enough.
Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has the Hogs a No. 10 seed taking on 23-8 Brigham Young in Providence, R.I., while Joe Lunardi of ESPN has them as a No. 10 facing 20-11 Kansas.
That would be a rematch of the second game of the 2023 NCAA Tournament when the Razorbacks ousted the No. 1 seed 72-71. Kansas Coach Bill Self missed the game with heart issues.
Lunardi has Arkansas playing in Lexington, Ky., which really wouldn’t seem right to force Calipari back into that hostile environment.
Incidentally, the Jayhawks have suffered through their second consecutive season with 11 losses, the most in a season for Self at Kansas, but like Calipari he’s had to work with a short bench much of the season.
Calipari put his team together on an all-out sprint.
When he accepted the job at Arkansas he had zero scholarship players and one walk-on.
He made the decision to get nine scholarship players who would do most of the heavy lifting and some guys who could help them in practice.
Maybe there was some name, imagine and likeness money considerations, but he has said he didn’t consider extensive injuries into his formula.
Anyway, it appears the Hogs don’t have to make a deep run in the SEC Tournament to make the Big Dance.
Which is good because if they beat South Carolina, they draw Ole Miss. The Rebels would be a tough matchup for them.
Ole Miss gave Arkansas problems when the teams met Jan. 8 in Fayetteville. The Rebels made 9 of 23 three pointers to just 5 of 23 for the Razorbacks.
Two other things that stood out was Ole Miss, which is not known for its rebounding, grabbed 36 rebounds to 35 and the turned the ball over just six times while holding Arkansas to just four points off turnovers.
If they were to get by the Rebels they would face now-No. 3 Auburn, which is coming off a 93-91 loss to Alabama. It would also be the Tigers’ first game of the tournament and the Hogs’ third, and that’s a lot to ask of a short-handed team.
The Razorbacks finished 8-10 in SEC play but nine of the losses were to teams thought to be in the NCAA Tournament and seven of their wins were against teams likely to be part of March Madness.
All of that is now water under the bridge. March is here and it is a new season for Arkansas.
