For all intents and purposes, this year’s Arkansas basketball team is eliminated from at-large consideration in the NCAA Tournament. Not only will the 2023-24 edition of the Razorbacks likely have to win the SEC Tournament to sniff the Big Dance, but they have made history in some of the worst ways possible this season, suffering multiple double-digit losses at home, two of which were in the top-four largest deficits in Bud Walton Arena.
Despite the adversity, and not many tangible goals left to play for, this team has arguably played some of its best basketball in recent weeks, and veteran wing Tramon Mark vocalized that sentiment, and the mindset of not giving up after the win over Texas A&M.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to give up," Mark said. "We’re going to play until the final buzzer. No matter how the season has been going, we’re going to play until the final buzzer. We’re going to play every game to win. We’re not just going out there trying to keep it closer or anything. We play every game to win. That’s what we did tonight."
That's exactly what Mark did Tuesday by leading all scorers with 26 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists. He even battled through a shoulder injury that saw the Houston transfer slowly get up off the court and run straight to the locker room. Mark came back and scored 22 second half points.
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What is there left to play for? Why play through such pain in a "lost" season with no real shot at the NCAA Tournament?
In an era where there is minimal continuity from year-to-year on a college basketball roster, it's hard to make the argument that the players are playing for the state the program represents or the program itself. What there is, though, is the camaraderie that comes with sports in general and the competitive desire to win.
The players on this roster are not blind to the talent that makes it up. There were ample press clippings from previous destinations and even this preseason to indicate this was a team that could not only make a run in the NCAA Tournament, but maybe even make the program's first Final Four since the Razorbacks nearly went back-to-back in 1994 and 1995.
Those expectations never materialized, though. Rather, they just remained expectations, unfulfilled to occupy more space Razorback fans' "what if" category of sports memories. With the dominant stretch that forward Makhi Mitchell has been on, playing at the level of an All-SEC caliber big man, fans are saying: "what if we got that all season?"
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With the shrinking of the rotation due to injuries, and certain players playing better given extended minutes and longer leashes like freshman Layden Blocker and transfer Khalif Battle, fans might wonder: "what if the rotations were shorter all season?"
Even with the disappointing results and the what ifs, the talent on the team is still present. Maybe it took longer to click than expected, maybe guys needed a wake up call to perform up to expectations, whatever the case may be. A fan's approach might be to say the players are playing for the program and the state, and that could be the case.
I'd wager it's the last go 'round for a lot of these guys, and certainly for all of them as a group. Any win looks and feels a whole lot better than a loss. The team hasn't tried to lose, they just haven't been able to win, but every single win from here on out, postseason be damned, is a whole lot more fun. The winning memories are sweeter than those stained by defeat.
Maybe it donned on the players that the season was ending at a rapid pace, and while they can't control everything, they can certainly control the effort they play with. That's been the most notable difference, more than the wins or the schematics or rotations: the effort.
Competitors compete, especially with their backs against the wall, and this team had almost nothing left to fight for and kept fighting anyway. In reality, it fought a lot harder. It's admirable, to say the least, and definitely respectable.
So, why do they refuse to give up? Simply because they have nothing left to lose.
