Arkansas is battle-tested entering NCAA Tournament
The Arkansas Razorbacks played one of the nation's toughest schedules, and though they weren't on the right side of the win column as much as fans would've hoped, they are as prepared for strong competition as anyone entering the NCAA Tournament.
Arkansas learned Sunday that it earned an 8-seed and will face off against 9-seed Illinois in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
After losing four of their last five, and blowing a 13-point halftime lead last time out against Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament, the Razorbacks have done their best to turn the page and learn from miscues.
"Right now the only thing we’re worried about is Illinois," head coach Eric Musselman said Sunday. "We’ve talked about our schedule, we’ve talked about, ‘Hey, the goal was to make the NCAA Tournament, try to get as good a seed as we possibly could.’ Through 30 games, we’re in an 8-9 game and now we just have to get ready for Illinois."
After taking on a gauntlet of a schedule in SEC play this season, the Razorbacks finished below .500 in conference play for the first time since the 2019-20 season — Musselman's first year in Fayetteville. The record doesn't tell the whole story, though, as many of those games were decided by few points and it prepared the Hogs for when it matters most: now.
Seven of Arkansas' conference opponents this season earned an NCAA Tournament bid — Tennessee, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky and Auburn — and it finished with a 4-9 record against that group. That tough slate earned the Hogs a strength of schedule ranking of 23rd, according to ESPN's Basketball Power Index, and it was also a big reason why Arkansas' metrics remained high despite losing.
"You look at our schedule overall in the SEC, it was as difficult as any conference schedule in all of college basketball," Musselman said. "Then you add in the fact who we played at the end. Really hard games, even the two games that we played in the SEC Tournament. I mean, we played two teams that are now in the NCAA Tournament. So our team has been challenged all year and we’ll be challenged against a team like Illinois, as well."
Even Arkansas' non-conference schedule was grueling and it featured four teams that will be part of the tournament field — San Diego State, Creighton, Baylor and UNC Asheville. The Razorbacks were 2-2 in those games with wins over San Diego State and UNC Asheville.
The Razorbacks have played 33 games to this point in the year and 17 of those were against teams that are still fighting for a shot at a national championship.
"In the eight years I’ve done it, it’s by far the most difficult schedule, not even close to any other years that I’ve been doing this," Musselman said. "And then you add in the injuries, I’m really proud what our guys have (done), how they’ve stuck together.
"The games that we have lost, a lot of close games. There has not been many games where we’ve been out of games. Over the course of 30 games, every team in the country almost has one or two games where you don’t play very well and there’s double-digit margins. We had a few this year, as well, but for the most part, you look at the 30-game body of work, we were in every single game we played almost."
As Musselman mentioned, his team was rarely completely out of game. Arkansas lost five games by three points each, and 10 of their 13 losses came by less than 10 points.
The Razorbacks know how much talent they have, and if things can start to click like they have on occasion, they can square up with any team in the field of 64.
"(We’re) real confident," guard Anthony Black said. "We’ve got the talent, the coaching and now we’ve just got to put it all together. We’ve shown what we can do against the top teams. Even if we haven’t won the games, we’ve been pretty competitive in almost every game this season. It’s going to be about putting it all together at the right time and making a run."
Arkansas and Illinois will tipoff at 3:30 p.m. CT Thursday inside Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. The game will be broadcast on TBS.