Beating No. 1 Auburn Still Doesn't Get Hogs Lot of Respect
Arkansas is riding on a high.
They sent LSU to a massive skid on their home floor.
Took down No. 1 Auburn.
Nine-game winning streak.
A breath away from second place in the SEC.
As many or more wins than 13 of the AP Top 25 teams.
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Nelson Chenault / USA TODAY Sports
Michael Morrison / allHOGS Images
But nationally that doesn’t matter. Nationally, Arkansas is an unranked team that would have gotten blown out had the game been in Auburn instead of in front of 20,000+ fans launching an all-out assault on the Tigers.
The perception of Arkansas in regard to the upcoming AP Poll can be discerned in a fairly accurate manner by looking at Joe Lunardi’s bi-weekly bracket projections.
The results: Beating Auburn barely moved the needle.
The Hogs were on the 7 line with LSU heading into Auburn. Now they’re on the 6 line just barely above LSU.
There was concern that in addition to the potential emotional letdown that can often happen following such a big game, the Hogs might struggle to give full focus to an Alabama team with nine losses and a losing record in the SEC.
That’s not an issue, though. According to Lunardi, Arkansas is the underdog this weekend.
The Tide currently reside in one of the No. 5 seed slots with Tennessee-Chattanooga as its projected opponent while Arkansas awaits the winner of Miami and Creighton for its opening round game.
Petre Thomas / USA TODAY Sports
Petre Thomas / USA TODAY Sports
Petre Thomas / USA TODAY Sports
Petre Thomas / USA TODAY Sports
Petre Thomas / USA TODAY Sports
Petre Thomas / USA TODAY Sports
Petre Thomas / USA TODAY Sports
Petre Thomas / USA TODAY Sports
Despite the significant difference in records between the Hogs and Tide, Alabama being favored is a much easier pill to swallow than the lovefest for LSU. Arkansas doesn’t own a head-to-head win over Alabama already and the Tide have a stringer full of monumental wins this year.
The Razorbacks’ big wins are Auburn, LSU and an early season classic championship win over a solid Cincinnati team.
Alabama brings the heads of No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga, No. 2 seed Baylor, No. 4 seed Houston, and No. 5 seed Tennessee in addition to their LSU victory.
With the Crimson Tide’s split personality, teams never know who they’re going to play. Will they be getting this year’s national champs or the No. 12 seed upset lock of the tournament?
Add in Alabama’s natural hatred for Auburn and you’ve got a team primed for a win to shove in the face of their basketball brethren to the east.
If Arkansas wants respect where it counts as far as future seeding in the NCAA tournament, the streak will need to extend to 12.
Anything less and it’s back to staring up at the backsides of the Tigers from LSU, and we all know how awful that looks and how much it stinks.
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