Razorbacks refresh, renew for SECT
Cleansing the bad taste and improving from the way they ended the regular season against Missouri Saturday in Columbia, Mo., become Arkansas’ top priorities going into the Razorbacks’ second season start Thursday at the Southeastern Conference Tournament in St. Louis.
Losing 77-67 at Missouri (2011, 10-8) plunged the Razorbacks
(21-10, 10-8) into a three-way tie for fourth place with Missouri and Kentucky (21-10, 10-8), one game behind third-place Florida
(20-11, 11-7). Auburn (25-6, 13-5) won the regular season title, while Tennessee (23-7, 13-5) earned the No. 2 seed.
The loss in Columbia cost Arkansas a double-bye into Friday’s 14-team SEC Tournament quarterfinals. Spo, coach Mike Anderson’s Razorbacks will play at approximately 8:45 p.m. Thursday against the winner of Wednesday’s game between 11thplace South Carolina (16-15, 7-11) and Ole Miss (12-19, 5-13), which finished last.
The Razorbacks are likely assured at leat an at-large bid when the field of the NCAA Tournament is announced Sunday. Most consider Missouri to be in the field as well.
Closing with a regular season loss at Missouri and a first round SEC Tournament loss to either the Gamecocks or the Rebels could unsettle those assurances, particularly if “wrong winners,” abound in conference tournaments throughout the country, prevail.
Gary Blair, the former Arkansas women’s coach and longtime Texas A&M women coach, referred to “wrong winners” as upset winners in conference tournaments automatically qualifying for the NCAA Tournament and narrowing the selection field for those on the bubble.
Arkansas cannot control what transpires elsewhere, but the Razorbacks can control their up-and-down rebounding. Arkansas has posted some big games on the boards, like outrebounding Texas A&M (20-11,
9-9), 45-33, in a 94-75 victory at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. The same, taller Aggies outrebounded the Razorbacks,
45-30, in an 80-66 home decision in College Station, Texas.
The Hogs outrebounded athletic Alabama (17-14, 9-10),
36-28, in a 76-73 road victory in Tuscaloosa, Ala., but lost on the boards, 46-29, in an 87-72 loss to Kentucky in Fayetteville. On Saturday, Missouri erased the boards, 37-25, including 11 offensive rebounds.
“Things went wrong for us today and what went really wrong was the rebounding,” Anderson said. “We’ve got to attack the glass. Also the fouling. It didn’t seem like we fouled that much ( the 26 fouls on Arkansas to the 17 on Missouri as officials called it) but that’s a lot of fouls.”
Part of Arkansas’ foul troubles, Anderson said, was fouling in vain for being bested on the boards. And part of it, it seemed, was life on the road. Missouri attempted 33 free throws, and made 27, to Arkansas’ 12 of 15.
“It’s hard to win when they make 27 free throws and we make 12,” Anderson said. “That’s hard to beat that kind of stuff. They were in the bonus I think like with 15 minutes to go. And I think it was like 7-2 (in fouls called on Arkansas vs. fouls called on Missouri). I alerted the officials to that. ‘What’s going on?’ Arkansas clawed back from a 39-31 halftime deficit to tie Mizzou, 51-51 then deteriorated as Mizzou capitalized at the free throw line.
“You can’t fault our guys effort,” Anderson said. “The execution wasn’t good, but the effort was there.”
Arkansas edged Missouri,
65-63, when they met back in January at Bud Walton.
“We just couldn’t get over the hump,” said Arkansas senior guard Jaylen Barford, 11 points and five rebounds. “They just kept shooting free throws. They’d barely get touched and
they get a foul called. It was frustrating.”
Get used to it away from Bud Walton and adjust, Arkansas 6-11 freshman center Daniel Gafford of El Dorado implied.
“That’s a road game,” Gafford said. “We just had to play through it.”
Gafford led the Razorbacks with 16 points and blocked four shots, but three Mizzou big men surpassed his four rebounds, next for the Hogs behind the five garnered by senior guards Anton Beard and Barford.
“Credit Missouri,” Anderson said. “They defended home court.”
Other than 6-9 senior Trey Thompson off of the bench hitting some shots, the Razorbacks otherwise did not answer Missouri’s first second-half run after the 51-51 tie.
“Our bench didn’t play particularly well,” Anderson said.
When our bench plays well, good things happen,” Anderson said. “I consider it the strength of our team.”
They’ve got until Thursday to refresh and renew.
“I want our guys to understand it’s a new season, and everybody starts out zero and zero,” Anderson said. “And the winner of the SEC Tournament gets the automatic bid to go on and play in the NCAA.”