Arkansas Razorbacks' Race for SEC Title Deceiving at Best

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — From the outside looking in, the Arkansas Razorbacks are in great shape heading into the final third of the season.

They are all alone in second place at a game back on the conference leaderboard with a head-to-head showdown with SEC leader Florida still left on the schedule. Unlike the rest of the league, only two teams control their destinies — John Calipari's Hogs and the Gators.

However, even clear and obvious data can be deceptive. Florida would have good reason to be borderline terrified of its minuscule lead that essentially isn't one at all since the two teams still have to play each other if this were a race being run on a flat track.

Fortunately for Todd Golden's team, which has clawed its way through a lot of flavors of the week to get to the top of the mountain, there's nothing flat about the final final six games of the season.

No. The remaining course is more akin to the Tour de France and the Razorbacks have cleared the field where it's them at a minute back followed by a solid gap and then a packed group of Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

The only problem is that one minute gap isn't really a minute gap. In reality, it's more like a three minute gap.

That's because as we start another day of racing, the Gators have three miles of downhill racing to start their day while the Hogs start on two miles of uphill track before they approach the downhill slope.

Essentially Arkansas isn't in a position to catch or pass Florida between now and the anticipated battle between the SEC's top two basketball programs in the last game in February.

That stretch includes a mid-week road game with an Alabama team led by Labaron Philon, Jr. that is set on dragging the Razorbacks back to the rest of the pack, which would almost guarantee the Gators the SEC title before they even begin prep for the Hogs.

Alabama is certainly focused on Arkansas and nothing else right now.

"We've gotta be a lot better on Wednesday because Arkansas is a lot more talented team than what we saw tonight," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said in comparison to a South Carolina team his Tide just beat by 14. ". . . They're talented. Like really talented. I'm not sure [letting teams come back after building a big lead is] what we're going to be talking about Wednesday night. We're going to be trying to get a win on Wednesday night no matter what we have to do to get it."

A win by the Tide would not only knock Arkansas out of the SEC championship race, it would send the Razorbacks tumbling to fourth place with little hope of moving up because of losses to Alabama and Kentucky.

Still, let's assume Calipari figures out a way to escape Tuscaloosa with a win. The Hogs are still left to fight their way past a Texas A&M team that dominated the league for the first eight games of conference play, and a Missouri team that tends to hate Arkansas a great deal in a somewhat legitimate rivalry on the hardwood on top of desperately needing a Quad 1 win to stay on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament field.

"I'm going to say it what I said out there," Calipari said Saturday after the Hogs' win over Auburn. "The next six games, we can lose all six. They're all going to be ridiculously hard. I knew this would be a hard game. They beat us by 30, 30 down there.

"So you know now we move on and have some really hard road games. You ready for this? Really hard home games. We just go one game, our next game. I don't even know who is after Alabama. I know we play Alabama this week. I do not know who's next because I really don't care right now. Let's play the next game and see how we do."

Meanwhile, defending national champion Florida, which has won 10 of its last 11 games, must hold it together long enough to knock off last place South Carolina and next to last place Ole Miss, two teams that have visibly packed their bags and are ready to move on from this season.

"First of all, you're playing well and you're trying to win the league," Gators coach Todd Golden said after easily disposing of Kentucky on broadcast television Saturday afternoon. "But it doesn't change how we approach anything. We're not going to talk about holding onto first place leading up to the South Carolina game. It really has nothing to do with that.

"I do think, to talk about the Auburn game, that might have been a little bit of our issue that day. We're talking about getting back in position to compete, to win the league, looking too far forward. This team has been at its best when we're living in the now and focusing on getting better every day and not worrying about anything but that next game, and today was Kentucky. On Tuesday, it's gonna be South Carolina."

The only possible speed bump is a Texas team that is decent enough some days to take down a top level SEC team if the Longhorns opponent is having a bad day or a key player got hurt or suspended.

The role Texas likely serves is that of tune-up game following a week of load management to ensure the Gators are at their best when they welcome the Hogs to Gainesville to play in front of a rowdy house.

"Our crowd is incredible" Golden said. "And, you know, we had to earn it when we got the job here in terms of getting kind of the excitement back in the O-Dome, but, as I said before, this is why it's a great place. People really appreciate winning, and they want to be a part of it. They want to be around it. And you know, when we've given them a semblance of hope about our program, they have showed up for us and supported us in a big way."

Once the Hogs and Gators resolve what should be the SEC game of the year, Florida faces a Mississippi State team that will either be riding veteran guard Josh Hubbard on a heater or will have a hard time finding jerseys to play the game because they have packed it in and quit.

That will close the season at Rupp Arena against a Kentucky team bent on revenge, but possibly not quite good enough to do it.

As for Arkansas, the final week consists of playing tournament bubble spoiler against Texas in Bud Walton and Missouri in Columbia. The only way this turns into a roadblock is if the Hogs beat Florida to take over first place and mentally decide the season is done.

Otherwise, all should be well.

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