The Arkansas basketball team put a bow on its regular season last Saturday with a 93-92 win over Mississippi State, and now it looks to the postseason with the SEC Tournament set to begin Wednesday and Selection Sunday just five days away.

In coach John Calipari's first season at Arkansas, his team finished with a 19-12 overall record that includes an 8-10 mark in Southeastern Conference play.

After an 0-5 start in the league, the Razorbacks went 8-5 down the stretch which included several big wins. Injuries played a big role this season, with the Hogs' starting freshman point guard, Boogie Fland, missing the final 13 games of the regular season after he had thumb surgery.

The Razorbacks also lost forward Adou Thiero for the final four games of the regular season after he hyperextended his knee against Missouri on Feb. 22. Arkansas associate head coach Kenny Payne said Monday there's still no update on Thiero's condition heading into the SEC Tournament.

The 2024-25 season was a bit of a rollercoaster, to say the least. The Hogs underwent stretches with tough losses and sloppy play, but there were also high moments.

HawgBeat took a trip down memory lane and ranked the five best wins of Arkansas' season...

No, this win didn't move the needle for Arkansas' tournament projections, and it didn't really have any bigger implications at all, but a 74-point win deserves some recognition.

Arkansas had some tough stretches offensively early in the season, but you couldn't tell that in this game. Six Razorbacks finished in double figures and freshman wing Karter Knox — who struggled offensively early in the year — poured in a game-high 21 points.

UMES never led throughout the game, and Arkansas went on a 28-point scoring run in the first half. The Razorbacks scored 21 points off turnovers and abused the Hawks in the paint for 46 points.

That aforementioned 28-point run allowed the Hogs to put the game away within minutes of the opening tip, and they led, 60-15, by the end of the first half.

Again, this game didn't have any kind of implications in the grand scheme of things, which is why it didn't make the top five, but it was a fun night where even the walk-ons got the chance to play a couple of minutes, so it deserves an honorable mention.

Arkansas head coach John Calipari said following the Hogs' win over Vanderbilt (listed below) that after his team beat Georgia, they popped champagne because he knew they wouldn't go winless in SEC play.

Despite the Razorbacks' disastrous 0-5 start to league play, the Hogs got the monkey off their back and picked up their first SEC win over the Georgia Bulldogs. That win is still paying dividends, too. Because Georgia continued to play well down the stretch, it's a Quad 1 win in the NET rankings, which is big for NCAA Tournament implications.

It wasn't easy, though. To start things off, this was the first game without Fland, who had his thumb surgery that same day. Arkansas lost its leading scorer and point guard, and on top of that, Georgia was one of the better rebounding teams in the SEC.

In the first half, Arkansas looked much like it did in prior games. Turnovers, missed shots and altogether sloppy play allowed the Bulldogs to pile up a 12-point halftime lead. But the Hogs flipped a switch in the second half, mostly because they attacked the paint and got to the free throw line. The Hogs got 22 of their second-half points from the charity stripe, and most of those were thanks to Knox and Thiero.

"It's hard when you're not winning to get in that mindset that we're fine," Calipari said. "If you won five games, you're looking at each other, we'll be fine. We're coming back and beating them. If you lose now, all of a sudden it's a different deal. But I'm happy for the kids. It's nice to get it off their back and now we keep playing. Let's see how we build on this."

Thiero and Knox combined to go 17-of-19 from the free throw line, and Thiero's only miss came with seconds to go in regulation after he had put the Hogs up three. He grabbed the offensive rebound off that miss and time expired, giving the Razorbacks the win.

This win is still fresh, as it came just a little over a week ago. Arkansas was coming off its 73-52 blowout defeat to South Carolina, and its postseason hopes hung in the balance. A win wouldn't guarantee an NCAA Tournament berth, but it would go a long way toward making sure the Hogs secured one.

Vanderbilt is no slouch, either. In his first year, Commodores head coach Mark Byington has his team poised to make the NCAA Tournament with a 20-11 overall record that includes an 8-10 mark in SEC play.

"Vandy obviously a pretty good seed in the NCAA Tournament," Calipari said after the win. "They’ve gone in this league and done some unbelievable stuff. We needed to win a game, and we did, but they’re good and they’re well-coached. They run great stuff. We missed… I wish we would have made a couple more threes. Twenty-four is a little bit, a lot of threes for us, but made shots. Made layups."

Arkansas didn't let its offensive struggles carry over to this game, which featured an absurdly late 9 p.m. CT tipoff. Despite turning the ball over 10 times in the first half, the Hogs used their defense to initiate offense and forced nine Vanderbilt turnovers that turned into 14 points for the Hogs. This game also featured two vintage Trevon Brazile slam dunks.

Vanderbilt threw plenty of punches early and led by as many as nine points in the first half, but Arkansas used a 21-8 run after the 'Dores gained that lead to take an advantage into halftime that it never lost.

This was also Arkansas' third-straight game without Thiero. Even after losing their leading scorer and rebounder, the Hogs scored 90 total points and out-rebounded the Commodores, 42-31.

This matchup felt like three separate basketball games all in one at the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City. It also turned out to be a huge resume-boosting win for the Hogs as the NCAA Tournament nears.

The Hogs had their issues with slow offensive starts in the games leading up to this one, but that wasn't really the case against the Wolverines. Arkansas shot 51.5% from the field in the first half and 36.4% from three, but found itself down by as many as 15 points early on.

The reason for that deficit? Michigan shot 61.3% from the field and was a blistering 7-of-12 from three-point land in the first half. Will Tschetter, who only averages 6.7 points per game for Michigan this season, had 13 points in the first half.

Arkansas was able to erase that deficit because of its defensive intensity, as 12 second-half turnovers allowed the Razorbacks to jump out to an 18-point lead midway through the second half.

It seemed as though the game was over and the Hogs were doing to run away with it, but it was not so. The Wolverines continued to chip into the lead until it was just 88-87, but a block and subsequent free throw from Brazile sealed the deal.

Fland had a night to remember in his hometown. The New York City native scored 20 points and dished out seven assists to help lead the Hogs to victory.

"It was nice, I had over 100 people here, so just for them to be able to see me play in person," Fland said after the game. "Most of my career, they haven’t been able to see me. Especially being the first time at the Garden, and we get the win, it’s not more special than that.

On a night that honored Arkansas' 1990 Final Four team, the Razorbacks had lost three of their last four games, all of which came to Top-10 teams. A four-point loss to No. 4 Alabama, an eight-point loss to No. 8 Texas A&M and a seven-point loss to No. 1 Auburn showed Arkansas was capable of playing with the big boys, it just hadn't closed out a big win.

"We had (a chance) against Alabama, we had it against A&M, I can go on and on and on, and we don’t finish people off," Calipari said after the Auburn loss on Feb. 19. "That’s what makes (Auburn) the No. 1 team in the country. They made the plays and they made their free throws."

Enter Missouri, which had just obliterated Alabama, 110-98 a few days prior and was one of the hottest shooting teams in the conference. This was the second matchup between the two teams, and the Tigers had already thrashed the Razorbacks, 83-65, in Columbia.

Perhaps it was the magic in the air or a pregame hype-up from former Razorback Darrell Hawkins, but Arkansas got over the hump and defeated their northern rivals, 92-85. In the first half, Missouri was as advertised — hot. The Tigers hit eight threes, the final one coming at the halftime buzzer by Marques Warrick to put Missouri up, 48-41.

But Arkansas would not be denied. The Hogs outscored the Tigers, 23-13, in the first 10 minutes of the second half to take the lead for good. Arkansas led by as many as 11 points in the final 20 minutes, and though Missouri made the score close at the end, it never got closer than five points.

The thing that stands out the most in that game was the polar opposite shooting for Missouri between the first two halves. Arkansas allowed the Tigers to shoot 51.4% from the field in the first half, but just 36.4% in the second, and they only hit four threes in the final 20 minutes.

Come on, was there any real question that this was the biggest win of the season? Outside of the fact that Arkansas was, at this point, 1-6 in SEC play, it was Calipari's homecoming, and you could tell the second you walked into Rupp Arena. The vibe inside was like Christmas morning with two divorced parents coming to the same house.

It wasn't just Calipari's homecoming, though. Wagner, Thiero and Zvonimir Ivisic all played at Kentucky the season prior as well. They were met with a loud chorus of boos as they walked onto the floor for warmups, when they were introduced in the pregame festivities and nearly every time they touched the ball.

A raucous, sold-out crowd had their fun in the first minutes of the game. Kentucky started on fire from deep, as it made its first four three-pointers, and after Jaxon Robinson hit one to put the 'Cats up 18-12, the crowd was so loud that it felt like the building was going to collapse.

But the Hogs would not go quietly into the night. Led by Thiero, the Hogs outscored Kentucky, 34-27, to overcome that six-point deficit and carry a 46-45 lead into the halftime break.

In the second half, the trio of Thiero, Wagner and Ivisic went on a 12-2 run that put the Razorbacks up 11 points, and they never looked back. The Kentucky faithful hit the exits early, and Calipari walked out of Rupp Arena as he had many times before — victorious — with an 89-79 final score.

"They all three played well," Calipari said after the game. "D.J. played and so did Z and so did Adou. Adou played as though, that’s how we want him to play every game. Hard to play that way every game. But we put it in his hands in spots where he could drive the ball and we also ran. A bunch of points in transition. Nelly was playing like we’ve all expected him to play."

On top of the optics of Calipari beating his former team, this victory seemed to propel the Razorbacks into more winning ways down the stretch. After this game, the Razorbacks went 6-4 and, though it's still unclear how the cards will fall on Selection Sunday, it appears they're going dancing in the NCAA Tournament.

**JOIN THE CONVERSATION WITH ARKANSAS FANS ON THE TROUGH, HAWGBEAT'S PREMIUM MESSAGE BOARD**