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FAYETTEVILLE — In a matter of seconds, Bud Walton Arena shook off the cobwebs and roared in a way it hadn’t since its court’s namesake roamed the sideline.
The moment was fleeting, silenced by a 17-2 run by the visiting Wildcats, but the building - fueled by a sellout crowd that smelled blood - erupted as Kentucky coach John Calipari was escorted off the court following his double technical and subsequent ejection.
It was so loud that ESPN's cameras even caught Kentucky guard Immanuel Quickley plugging his ears.
“It was definitely pretty loud at times, especially when they went on that little run and when Coach Cal had his (two) technical fouls,” Kentucky guard Tyrese Maxey said. “It was super loud then… It was just crazy.”
For fans of a certain age, it conjured up two-decade-old memories. For the students who started lining up at 4:30 a.m. for the 3 p.m. tip and those younger, it was their first true taste of what Bud Walton Arena can be like when filled to capacity.
Mason Jones’ ensuing free throws put the Razorbacks up 47-44 with 8:19 remaining, their first lead since early in the first half. Even though Kentucky quickly regained control with the aforementioned 17-2 run that included an Arkansas scoring drought of nearly five minutes and won 73-66, it proved head coach Eric Musselman is ahead of schedule.
But that doesn’t make the loss any easier, as evidenced by the dejected first-year coach not looking up a single time during his seven-minute postgame press conference.
“We had an incredible environment in the building,” Musselman said while staring at the box score in front of him. “We don’t want to let our fans down and it’s hard to create that atmosphere and get that atmosphere back. The locker room’s hurting.”
If you take a step back and push aside the pain of losing an eighth straight game in the series, though, you’ll realize that Arkansas had no business playing Kentucky - the No. 10 team in the country, according to the AP Poll - as closely as it did.
The Razorbacks’ starting lineup features five players 6-foot-6 or shorter and they don’t have any eligible players taller than 6-foot-8. Compared to the Wildcats, who started 6-foot-11 Nick Richards and 6-foot-10 EJ Montgomery, Arkansas looked tiny.
Although not quite to the extent as in their loss at LSU, that size advantage hurt the Razorbacks. They were dominated 47-29 on the boards, but Musselman was still pleased with how they defended traditional feeds into the paint.
“Surprisingly, their post-ups didn’t really hurt us with our lack of size,” Musselman said. “The rebounding did, for sure, but it wasn’t like they were just throwing it in the post and that was hurting us.”
As hard as Arkansas played, it was hard not to notice the sheer talent differential, too. Had former UNLV star Larry Johnson been on the court, he likely would have told Musselman - just as he famously told Nolan Richardson in their 1991 showdown inside Barnhill Arena - that he needed to “go get some men.”
All five of Kentucky’s starters Saturday afternoon were five-star recruits ranked in the top 22 of their respective classes, plus the Wildcats’ bench included another five-star, a four-star who was two spots shy of the five-star threshold and a graduate transfer who was all-conference at his previous school.
Several of those players will be in the NBA sooner rather than later, while Arkansas has just two - Jones and Isaiah Joe - generating any draft talk.
Help is on the way next year with a four-member class consisting entirely of Rivals150 prospects, but right now, the Razorbacks’ “Jimmys and Joes” - at least in terms of recruiting - are pretty much only a Jimmy and a Joe.
Joe was the No. 116 player in his class, making him the second best recruit on the team behind graduate transfer Jimmy Whitt Jr., who checked in at No. 55 when he came out Columbia, Mo., Hickman way back in 2015.
Jones, on the other hand, came to Arkansas as an unranked junior college transfer with no stars. The Razorbacks’ other two starters - Desi Sills and Adrio Bailey - were unranked three-star prospects. Coming off the bench, Reggie Chaney squeaked just inside the Rivals150 at No. 149 and Jalen Harris was an unranked three-star who originally signed with New Mexico.
The talent gap was particularly evident when Kentucky played defense, as it held the Razorbacks’ to a season-low 33.3 percent shooting - including 29.4 percent in the second half. The Wildcats smothered Jones and Joe - two of the SEC’s top four scorers - and eventually turned to a zone down the stretch, when they went on their run.
“I think we’re a good defensive team,” Kentucky associate head coach Kenny Payne said. “I think we’re athletic. If we can find a way to keep you in front of us, our athleticism comes into play.”
That said, despite the size and talent advantages the Wildcats had, Arkansas still had the lead with six minutes left in the game.
The Razorbacks missed several shots they usually make and shot about 10 percentage points lower than their season average at the free throw line. Most notably, Jones - a 91.2 percent shooter from the charity stripe coming into the game - made just 8 of 12 and Adrio Bailey made just 1 of 6.
“I can’t really answer why we missed foul shots, but we left points on the board and we missed some front ends of one and ones,” Musselman said. “And that can’t happen.”
Based on the comments of its associate head coach afterward, Kentucky was relieved to be heading back to Lexington, Ky., with the victory.
Arkansas has always had the reputation of being tough to beat at home, but it didn’t play anywhere close to the A-game Musselman said was necessary and still managed to erase a double-digit deficit against the No. 10 team in the country.
“This is a very good Arkansas team by their record and the way they play,” Payne said. “They create a lot of mismatches, they got a lot of good players, and for us to come in here and come out with a W against a well-coached team whose atmosphere and culture is changing and Musselman is doing a great job here, says a lot about our team.”
Things are definitely trending in the right direction for Arkansas. With a top-10 recruiting class waiting in the wings and the Razorbacks already on their way to far exceeding their preseason 11th-place projection in the SEC, Bud Walton Arena losing its mind Saturday afternoon was just a glimpse of what’s to come.
However, there are three more sellouts already on the rest of this year’s schedule and most bracketologists have Arkansas dancing in March.
Musselman has the Razorbacks playing much better than anyone expected just 17 games into his tenure in Fayetteville, plus he has their focus on the present. Right now, that means a road trip to Starkville, Miss., to face a red-hot Mississippi State team led by one-time Arkansas commit Reggie Perry.
The Bulldogs are 11-6 overall and 2-3 in conference play, but have won their last two games - vs. Missouri and Georgia - by a combined 59 points and Perry is averaging a double-double (16.4 points, 10.1 rebounds).
“I just feel like we've got to go back to the drawing board,” Jones said. “We're sad right now, but I told them the sun will rise tomorrow, we've all got to go to church, be smiling and deal with it.
“We've just got to be ready for Mississippi State. Like coach Muss said, we don't lose two in a row, so I know we're going to go back Monday and go crazy and we're all just going to have another chip on our shoulder.”
