‘0-0’ Hogs set sights on tourney
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks hope their next game in the state of Missouri goes better than the last one.
The Razorbacks (21-10) open SEC Tournament play in St. Louis on Thursday night against either South Carolina (16-15) or Vanderbilt (12-19).
The Gamecocks and Commodores play Wednesday night with the winner advancing to face the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville in Scottrade Center.
Arkansas goes into the SEC Tournament after losing 77-67 at Missouri on Saturday in Columbia,
Mo., a twohour drive on Interstate 70 west of St.
Louis.
“Before this game here, I thought we were playing really good,” Razorbacks Coach Mike Anderson said. “So we’ll get back to that.”
Arkansas had won six of seven games before losing to Missouri (20-11), which like Arkansas should be a lock for the NCAA Tournament.
ESPN is projecting eight SEC teams will be in the NCAA Tournament: conference co-champions Auburn and Tennessee along with Florida, Kentucky, Alabama, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Missouri.
Arkansas senior guard Jaylen Barford said the Razorbacks will get over the loss quickly.
“This game won’t affect us,” Barford said. “We’ve just got to put it behind us and get ready for next week.”
“We’re still confident. The SEC Tournament is a new slate, and we’re ready to start winning again.”
Arkansas tied Kentucky and Missouri for fourth in the SEC’s final regular-season standings at 10-8, but the Razorbacks are the No. 6 seed because they lost tiebreakers against the Wildcats and Tigers.
Kentucky is the No. 4 seed because it went 2-1 against Arkansas and Missouri, including a victory over the Razorbacks in Walton Arena.
Missouri is the No. 5 seed because the Tigers went 2-2 against Kentucky and Arkansas.
The Razorbacks were 1-2 against the Wildcats and Tigers.
“We’ve had a decent season,” Arkansas freshman forward Daniel Gafford said. “We lost a couple games that we shouldn’t have lost, but we can’t worry about that now.
“We just need to get ready to play Thursday and have that mindset we’re going to win a championship. But take it one game at a time.”
The Razorbacks went 2-0 in the regular season against South Carolina and Vanderbilt, but both of those games were in Walton Arena, where Arkansas finished 15-2. The Razorbacks beat the Gamecocks 81-65 and Vanderbilt 72-54 in back-toback games on Feb. 6 and Feb. 10.
If Arkansas wins Thursday night, it will play No. 3 seed Florida (20-11, 11-7) on Friday night.
The Gators have won eight in a row over the Razorbacks, including an 87-73 victory on Jan. 17 in the O’Connell Center in the teams’ only meeting this season.
But as the coaches like to say, what happened in the regular season doesn’t matter in the postseason.
“This is a new season now,” Anderson said of the SEC Tournament. “Everybody starts out 0-0 again.”