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Arkansas will experience “Wednesday Night Sadness” for the first time this week.

The Razorbacks’ disappointing loss at Texas A&M was part of a perfect storm - which also included Missouri beating Alabama, Mississippi State beating Ole Miss and Auburn beating Tennessee - that caused them to slip to the No. 11 seed for the SEC Tournament.

As it unfolded, Arkansas and Missouri actually tied for 10th in the standings, but the Tigers own the tiebreaker. The teams split their two regular-season matchups, each winning on their home court, and both lost to No. 1 seed Kentucky. The Tigers beat Auburn, the No. 2 seed, though, while the Razorbacks lost their game against Auburn.

It is the first time since the SEC Tournament went to its current format in 2013 that Arkansas has earned one of the bottom four seeds, which means it will play in one of Wednesday’s two opening games.

At this point, reaching the NCAA Tournament likely requires the Razorbacks winning the SEC Tournament to capture the conference’s automatic bid. To do so, they’d have to win five games in five days - something no team has done in the first seven years of this format.

In fact, the furthest a team playing on Wednesday has made it is the semifinals. That came in 2015, when No. 13 seed Auburn beat No. 12 seed Mississippi State, No. 5 seed Texas A&M and No. 4 seed LSU before losing to top-seed Kentucky.

That was one of just five instances - out of 14 total opportunities - of a No. 11-14 seed even reaching the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament.

Although a daunting task that has never been done in the SEC, winning five games in five days has happened in college basketball. Led by Kemba Walker, UConn did just that to capture the 2011 Big East tournament title - and then rode that momentum to a national championship for arguably the greatest postseason run in the sport’s history.

Arkansas’ path to the semifinals goes through No. 14 seed Vanderbilt, which is playing in its hometown just a week after deadly tornadoes hit the area. It would then have to beat No. 6 seed South Carolina and No. 3 seed LSU.

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