Six Moments That Defined Arkansas Razorbacks' Season

With the season officially over, it's that time of year where everyone gets to take a look back once last time before closing the book.

In this case, there will be six, carefully chosen defining moments from the season that capture the essence of the year.

Arkansas Razorbacks' coach John Calipari against the Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in San Jose, Calif. | Munir El-Khatib-allHOGS Images

When people began to think there might something there

For a lot of basketball observers this came in a 93-86 win over No. 16 Texas Tech in Dallas against a Red Raiders team that was still at full strength with JT Toppin who put up 30 on the Hogs in a losing effort in his home town.

For those who were still skeptical, hope didn't fully spring until Arkansas took down No. 19 Tennessee, the only SEC team to make the Elite 8, 86-75, to open conference play.

Arkansas Razorbacks' Darius Acuff against the Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in San Jose, Calif. | Munir El-Khatib-allHOGS Images

The game people knew Acuff was a star

There will be a lit of reasons to remember Darius Acuff. He was named SEC Player of the Year, SEC Freshman of the Year, and scored 30 points so often it basically became an expectation.

Unfortunately, for him, by the time the NCAA Tournament came along, everything became about him and his teammates sort of got left behind.

Without them playing prominent roles on both ends of the floor, the Hogs became rather ordinary and were disposed in one of the more forgettable Sweet 16 runs of all time.

While other recent trips had dramatic moments like the wins over No. 1 seeds Gonzaga and Kansas which were filled with signature moments, a last second winning shot by Davonte Davis over Oral Roberts as a little known freshman and the win over Rick Pitino's much hyped St. John's team, this year was rather blah and Acuff never had his moment.

Instead, eventually memory of the awards will fade and all that will be left behind as the result of only playing a single year will be the memory of the Alabama game.

Fans might start misremembering it as a win, but the 49 points where he almost single-handedly pulled the upset of the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa will become the lone major memory of Acuff.

He may become the first Hog to be remembered for his NBA career in by Arkansas fans than his college career, but the loss to Alabama will never be forgotten in a positive way.

He scored his 49 points on 27 shots and was a big reason why the Razorbacks led by 14 after the first 11 minutes of the game and had a 10-point lead at the half after the Hogs put up a dumbfounding 57 points in the first half.

Acuff put up 22 more points in the second half, including a three with 12 seconds left to send it to overtime tied, 95-95.

Arkansas Razorbacks' Billy Richmond against the Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in San Jose, Calif. | Munir El-Khatib-allHOGS Images

The game where Billy Richmond became viewed differently universally

While he had much bigger performances, people began to look at Richmond as a major contributor in the two-game stretch with Duke and Louisville.

He scored 11 and 10 points respectively, but also had five rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal to go with a disruptive effort on defense against the Blue Devils.

Then he followed that up with four rebounds, two assists and a block to go along with a strong defensive effort against the cardinals. Nearly every trip down the floor and back had some sort of Billy Richmond stamp on it.

By the time he hit a stretch of five straight games in SEC play where he scored at least 20 points and a combined 18 rebounds, 16 assists, six blocks and 10 steals to go along with his 111 points, people knew he was becoming a star.

If they didn't, it wasn't because Calipari hadn't spent a month hyping him up into the next must draft NBA prospect at the podium following each Arkansas game.

Eventually all of the "Billy Goat" talk started to weigh him down, dropping his point production dramatically as he fell back on filling up the box score in other ways.

By the time the NCAA Tournament came around, Richmond settled back into a more stable producer with a balance of points in the teens with solid numbers everywhere else in the box.

Arkansas Razorbacks' Meleek Thomas against the Arizona Wildcats in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in San Jose, Calif. | Munir El-Khatib-allHOGS Images

When fans realized Meleek Thomas might be underappreciated

Had Thomas been on just about any other team, he would have been considered a star, but the spotlight was so focused on Acuff at Arkansas that the other NBA caliber freshman often went unnoticed.

Most Razorbacks fans probably don't realize he hit 20+ in nine games and most came late in the season, including a 29 point, five rebound, five assist run that saved the Hogs against Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament. Even during the NCAA Tournament where he averaged 19 points per game, it felt like he was almost invisible.

Others like Richmond and Brazile got praised regularly in addition to Acuff, but Thomas went largely underappreciated all season long. Where that became clear was, ironically, the Alabama game.

Acuff is all anyone can remember from that game because of his 49-point performance, a large chunk of which came from the free throw line. However, equally impressive in his own way was Thomas.

He chipped in 24 points, which is a strong day for a freshman, but it's how he did it that should have been memorable. He hit that level of production on only 13 shots before fouling out, which included going 6-of-8 from three, to allow Arkansas to flip the scoreboard in large chunks at once to help the Hogs keep pace.

Thomas also had six rebounds in that game. By that point in his development, the young guard was putting up mid-teens for points with a jump into the 20s every four games or so, while racking up a decent amount of rebounds.

For instance, in his first game against Missouri, Thomas put up 14 points and eight rebounds immediately following the Alabama game. However, a couple of weeks later against those same Tigers with Acuff on the bench. Thomas exploded for 30 points and seven rebounds.

NBA scouts will label him as having tremendous upside because, outside of the Missouri game to close the season, he never truly got to show what he can do. He has a lot of untapped potential and a smooth stroke on his shots.

He also isn't afraid to play defense. Acuff may be drafted higher, but it wouldn't be surprising to see Thomas have a longer, more successful overall NBA career that will define just how underappreciated he went at Arkansas.

When did everyone know there was not going to be a national championship in the cards for Arkansas?

There is no doubt this was the Florida game. There had been hints all year that Arkansas didn't have what it needed in the paint to beat certain teams and this staff didn't have it in them to scheme a way around it.

The Gators put a magnifying glass up to the Razorbacks problems and held it there until thing figuratively burst into flames. In what was a defacto SEC regular season championship game, the Gators pounded the ball inside over and over, crushing the Hogs with body blows.

Eventually Arkansas fell in a manner even more destructive than the Arizona game, 111-77.

When everyone knew it was over

During a timeout interview against Arizona with just under six minutes left in the first half, Calipari looked somewhere between drunk and struggling with sleep medication.

He then uttered a line that sounded like it was written for the assistant coach in the movie "Hoosiers."

"First of all they're really good," Calipari said. "We've got to run stuff because of how they're playing on that end."

It was clear by the look in his eyes he had zero thoughts about Arkansas having a chance to get out with a win. All the signs were there of a coach who had already given up and was mentally on the bus trying to get to the airport to take a break from the season.

He made it clear in the postgame press conference he didn't feel like his team had a chance in this match-up.

It's one thing for everyone who saw Arkansas land in the 4/5 seed path to know this ends in the Sweet 16 because the Hogs can't match up against a No. 1 seed because of front court issues, but to have a coach clearly believe he had no way to scheme his way into at least hope was disturbing to say the least.