Razorbacks Will Have to Go It Alone in Quest for No. 1 Seed

Help from rest of SEC, other teams on schedule probably not happening this year

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Dec 20, 2022 7:58 PM EST

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Over the past three seasons, for the Razorbacks to get onto a path to make it into the NCAA tournament, or in the case of the last two, carve a way to the Elite 8, help was needed from other teams.

A key win by a fellow SEC team or a key loss by someone outside the conference added value to Arkansas wins while clearing the debris needed to climb the NCAA ladder.

That's not happening this year. If you need that demonstrated by reality, take the AP rankings. Everybody and their brother has lost in front of Arkansas this year, yet, despite continuing to win, the Razorbacks aren't moving.

Bradley is no killer by any stretch of the imagination, but the Braves are a projected No. 13 seed, so it should have had some positive effect.

Yet, there's Arkansas stuck in the mud at No. 10, where it fell last week following wins over UNC-Greensboro and Oklahoma.

Of course, the SEC schedule starts next week, but the help from the conference schedule is going to be minimal.

There have been a few SEC wins against ranked teams from other conferences, pretty much all of which came via Alabama and Tennessee, but with people just now starting to pay attention to basketball, most will only remember the high profile blood bath the league took this past week.

Tennessee lost to No. 9 Arizona.

Alabama lost to No. 15 Gonzaga.

Kentucky lost to No. 16 UCLA.

Auburn lost to an unranked USC team.

All ranked bell cow programs. All making it clear to future committee members presumably how much better basketball is out West than in the Southeast part of the country.

As a result, the big talk in college basketball was how the SEC was the weekend's biggest loser instead of the Big Bad Wolves the conference wants it to be.

Alabama's road win over Houston, Tennessee's wins over Gonzaga and Kansas, along with ... well, apparently Auburn and Kentucky have fallen face first every time a ranked opponent has shown up on the schedule, but those wins by Alabama and Tennessee have been wiped out by the full conference collapse against ranked opponents this past week.

To make matters worse, then No. 8 Creighton forgot how to play basketball after an epic 90-87 win over Arkansas in Maui. The Blue Jays haven't won a single game since.

As for then No. 17 San Diego St., which was to be the big win for Arkansas coming out of the Maui Classic in a dramatic overtime finish – with emphasis on the dramatic – the world dropped out from under the Aztecs, as did their ranking.

If Arkansas wants to dig itself out of the mud at No. 10, the Hogs are not only going to have to win, they're going to have to win big. The path to a No. 1 or high No. 2 seed will have to be littered with the bludgeoned carcasses of literally everyone left on the schedule.

The only other way things might tip in the Hogs' favor is if the SEC goes in and dominates in the Big 12-SEC challenge, thus replacing the image that a conference loss for the Razorbacks is the equivalent to two in the Pac 12.

Other schools will get the nod if aren't dominant in winning because everyone will have that distant memory of the SEC going up against other conferences in mid-December and getting blanked if the Big 12 plays .500 basketball or better in that challenge.

As Arkansas fans know, Musselman's goal is always to just get to the tournament and sort it out game by game. It's led to the Elite 8 each of the past two seasons.

However, the prestige of a No. 1 seed and dreams of a theoretically easier path back to the Elite 8 have Arkansas fans hoping for help.

Help that likely isn't coming.