Arkansas’ path to the NCAA Tournament is set, but it’ll take a historic run to get there

While Arkansas isn’t in the friendly confines of Bud Walton Arena this time around, say they take care of business against the Commodores. The next item on the agenda would be the beat South Carolina, the 5-seed in the SEC Tournament. The Gamecocks have been a pleasant surprise in year two under Lamont Paris, and like Vanderbilt, knocked off Arkansas at Bud Walton Arena on Jan. 20, winning 77-64. Arkansas will likely have its hands full against a Carolina team that wants to continue to prove the naysayers wrong. 

If the Razorbacks find a way to grit out a win against South Carolina, they’ll be rewarded by playing the fourth-seeded Auburn Tigers, who oh-by-the-way, handed Arkansas the worst loss in the history of Bud Walton Arena on Jan. 6, routing the Razorbacks by a final score of 83-51. Auburn has always been a consistent threat under Bruce Pearl and looks to be so again in 2024. 

Nobody in the conference is locked into the Semifinals yet, but Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama all seem like safe bets to make it. How did Arkansas perform against those three teams in the regular season? They went 0-4, with Tennessee beating Arkansas 92-63 inside Bud Walton Arena on Valentine’s Day. Not a very romantic gesture of love. 

The Kentucky and Alabama games, however, were a different story. While Arkansas did drop both their contests against Kentucky, they held the Wildcats high-flying offense to just 63 points in a six-point loss on Jan. 27. When the two teams met again on March 2 inside Rupp Arena, Arkansas went point for point with Kentucky before eventually falling 111-102 in a high scoring shootout. 

Alabama is the team that Arkansas has seen most recently, with the Crimson Tide handing Arkansas its 16th loss of the season in heartbreaking fashion on Saturday. Alabama never led in regulation, but scored 18 points in overtime to grab a 92-88 win in the regular season finale. 

There’s no doubt that Arkansas has already been written off by the college basketball world entering the SEC Tournament, and it’s easy to see why. This is Eric Musselman’s worst Arkansas team since his first one in the shortened 2019-20 season, but with the likes of Khalif Battle and Makhi Mitchell playing their best basketball of the year, why can’t Arkansas make a miracle run in Nashville? 

After all, it’s hard to root against an underhog, no matter how many tigers, elephants, wildcats or gamecocks stand in their way.