Razorbacks reflect on up-and-down season
Following Thursday's 88-65 loss to UConn in the Sweet 16, all Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman and his players could do was reflect on a season that had plenty of highs and a lot of lows.
After entering the year as a preseason top 10 team, the Razorbacks seemed to never catch a break. Whether it was Nick Smith Jr. dealing with right knee management for the first six games and then another 13 during the middle of the season, or star forward Trevon Brazile tearing his ACL against UNC Greensboro, the Hogs just couldn't have everything work out.
Musselman brought in three five-star freshmen, one four-star, two three-stars and a talented group of five transfers to go with returners Davonte Davis and Kamani Johnson. Arkansas played just one game at full strength all year — a 99-58 win over San Jose State on Dec. 3.
"We did a good job fighting through adversity this year," five-star freshman Anthony Black said. "We got some players back, lost some players. There were injuries and stuff like that. And then we had losing streaks, winning streaks. It was real up and down.
"But for the most part, at the end of the season, we were playing decent ball. We just fought through a lot this year. And it didn't end how we wanted it to. But we fought. That's all I can say, we fought."
By the start of SEC play, Arkansas knew it wasn't going to have Brazile for the rest of the season and the jury was still out on Smith's knee injury. The Razorbacks continued to fight and after a 1-5 start to conference play, they battled back to win five straight SEC games, including an 88-73 win over Kentucky inside Rupp Arena, to get back over .500 in conference play.
Three straight losses to end the regular season against Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky brought spirits down once again, but the Hogs knew they were a virtual lock for postseason play.
After a 1-1 showing at the SEC Tournament, the new season began in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, when Arkansas defeated Illinois 73-63 to advance for a meeting with 1-seed Kansas. The Razorbacks shocked the Jayhawks with a 72-71 upset and Arkansas was the talk of the college basketball world once again.
"I think, first of all, it's really hard to make the NCAA Tournament," Musselman said. "It's really difficult to be one of the teams that plays their way into the tournament and then it's really difficult to win a game. Really proud of the way that we positioned ourselves non-conference. It started then by playing really well non-conference. And then obviously the way that we played the first two games in this tournament, we played phenomenal."
Then came Thursday's meeting with the Huskies, who dominated the Razorbacks in just about every area of the game. They led by as much as 29 and they never allowed the Hogs to secure a lead during the entire 40 minute game.
"Tonight we ran into a team that passed the ball really well and shared it," Musselman said. "But there's a lot of great things going on at Arkansas, and proud of these three guys as well as everybody in our locker room. Because, again, there's not a lot of teams that have been to three straight Sweet 16s in the entire country, and we are one of them. So we're really proud of that. The culture is strong."
To lose a game the way the Razorbacks did on Thursday could be demoralizing, but it was obvious that they were fighting until the very end. Black was drawing fouls and bench players such as Derrian Ford and Barry Dunning Jr. were giving it their all even though the game was out of reach.
"I mean, you never want to go out like that, you know what I mean," senior Kamani Johnson said. "That's not what we do here. But I mean, looking back on it, I'm just proud of my young guys and how they fought. And we went through a roller coaster this year, a tough season for us, and I'm just proud about how they fought.
"It's misery right now because we lost, but when you look back on it, this group, we made it to the Sweet 16 and we're doing something special in Arkansas and we're kind of building on that. I'm just proud of this group. It hurts right now. But I'm really proud of this group."
Johnson saw his Razorback career come to an end when he fouled out at the 7:10 mark in the second half. While he is out of eligibility, the rest of the Hogs have decisions to make about their future.
With six freshmen and five transfers, being able to come together and work towards an ultimate goal in a fairly short amount of time can be very difficult. Musselman harped all season on the fact that his team was continuing to learn and grow, even after the big win over Kansas.
"We had ups and downs, but we had an ultimate goal and weren't able to reach it," Davis said. "Like Kamani said, we're just proud for the guys that came in, didn't know what was coming ahead of them. And we all came together and made it this far. And I'm proud of the guys for sure, continuing to push through the tough season that we did have."
While the 2022-23 season is now over for Arkansas, work for the 23-24 season has been happening. The Razorbacks have reached out to plenty of transfers and the players with remaining eligibility will now weight their options.
HawgBeat will provide plenty of coverage on those leaving, those coming in and what the state of the roster looks like throughout the offseason.