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HawgBeat's coverage of Arkansas's journey in the 2021 NCAA tournament is present by Wright's Barbecue. Already serving up the best meats in Arkansas, you can now also find Wright's meat rub and sauces at Walmart.

For the first time since 2015, the Arkansas women’s basketball team is heading to the Big Dance.

The Razorbacks are a 4 seed and will play 13 seed Wright State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it was announced Monday. That game is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT next Monday in San Antonio, which is hosting the entire women’s tournament.

If Arkansas can get by the Raiders, it would then face the winner of the first-round matchup between 5 seed Missouri State and 12 seed UC Davis for a chance to go to the Sweet 16 for the first time since its Final Four run in 1998.

The quadrant of the bracket that features Arkansas - which is called the “Alamo Region” - also includes 1 seed Stanford, 2 seed Louisville and 3 seed Georgia.

Although the drought likely would have ended last season had it not been for the pandemic, as they were considered a lock to receive an at-large bid, this is the first time in six years the Razorbacks have made the NCAA Tournament.

However, you have to go back three decades to find the last time Arkansas was seeded this high. Back in 1991, when the tournament featured only 48 teams and they were still in the Southwest Conference, the Razorbacks were a 3 seed.

That is also the last time Arkansas’ men’s and women’s basketball programs enjoyed this level of success at the same time, as the men were a 1 seed - marking the only other time both squads earned a top-four seed in the postseason.

This year, the Razorbacks are one of only three programs that can say that, with the other two being Big 12 schools Baylor and West Virginia.

Since 2010, Arkansas is just the fourth SEC school that can claim it had a top-four seeded men’s and women’s program the same year. Kentucky has done it six times, while Tennessee and Texas A&M have each done it once.

Here’s a breakdown of how those schools did…

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