Mark Transferring to Texas Brings Different Realization Than Expected

Longhorns, Sooners headed to SEC, but what kind of threat are they?

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The news that Tramon Mark is going to Texas to play basketball next season wasn't exactly jarring.

He's from a town just outside of Houston along Galveston Bay, so the idea he would want to get back to his home state isn't a big shock. What was a little jarring though was the thought Arkansas will have to play him next season.

This whole Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC thing has drug out so long is still doesn't feel real. In addition, all of the focus has been around the football teams. Overlooked has been the idea those schools also have basketball and baseball, and they're on the schedule next year too.

The Longhorns aren't exactly newcomers to basketball success like Alabama, which made the Elite 8 for the second time in school history this past year, but it's not exactly Arkansas or Kentucky either. Texas is traditionally just good enough to be a lot of trouble for the Hogs, but not a threat to keep them out of an NCAA championship game.

Current Tennessee coach Rick Barnes made Texas relevant to college basketball for a while in the early 2000s, taking them to the Sweet 16 five times and advancing to the Elite 8 in 2003, 2006 and 2008. His 2003 team went to the Final Four for the first time in the modern era (also went in 1943, 1947) under the leadership of national player of the year TJ Ford.

The past four complete seasons, the Longhorns have posted 19, 21 and 22 wins with a 29-win season sandwiched in there from the partial season with Chris Beard two years ago. For reference, that puts them below Texas A&M the last several years, but slightly above Mississippi State.

Those are both teams that have been highly annoying to the Razorbacks, but not full threat level status anywhere near the likes of Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, or Auburn. However, when it comes to annoying, Oklahoma fits the bill perfectly.

Porter Moser's Sooners have been blood thirsty mosquitoes for the past several years. It probably has more to do with the Eric Musselman model of development than anything else, but Oklahoma took 2-of-3 in Tulsa the past three seasons, the first of which was in blowout fashion, 88-66.

Anyone who paid even casual attention to Musselman's teams know they were always bad from December to around mid-January and this series annually took place after the first full week of January. The Sooners had a nice run in the early 2000s under Kelvin Sampson and also Jeff Capel, then had a flash on the radar in 2016 when former Florida coach Lon Kruger got them to the Final Four, but the past five seasons have featured only one year with at least 20 wins.

Needless to say, Oklahoma isn't exactly the disturbance in the force to SEC basketball that Texas will be. Arkansas will be better served by a home-and-home series in conference play as opposed to an early December trip to Tulsa.

While the Sooners will be a nuclear bomb in women's sports, especially softball and gymnastics, they appear poised to make a gentle wave in football and barely a ripple when it comes to basketball. There will be an upset here and there with their inconsistent play, but sustaining wins across the grind of the more physical SEC schedule doesn't seem to be in the cards initially.

While a game against Mark and the Longhorns should be fun, there's not a whole lot of difference created in the Arkansas schedule by the addition of Texas and Oklahoma than any other season. In the end, it may even be better.

Perhaps, especially with Calipari at the helm, Arkansas won't be forced to travel to Alabama for a sixth out of seven seasons after room is made for the Longhorns and Sooners. The Crimson Tide would have to come to Bud Walton more than once every three years. That would be a nice bonus.

HOGS FEED:

• Spring game provides fans at least a few personnel answers, but not as many as they'd like

• It's clear to see how Taylen Green has emerged as the clear No. 1 quarterback through spring practice

• Razorbacks' bats disappear in first shutout in awhile as Hogs drop first SEC series of the season

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