Razorbacks must move on from stinker

FAYETTEVILLE — Kentucky’s Wildcats knew Wednesday they fought even while upset, 68-66 on their Senior Night by Vanderbilt at Rupp Arena.

Arkansas’ Razorbacks knew Tuesday they put up no fight surrendering, 75-57 on Tennessee’s Senior Night in Knoxville but that they took the fight to Kentucky whipping the Wildcats, 88-73 on Feb. 7 at Rupp in Lexington, Ky.

Will previous happenings affect Kentucky, 20-10 overall, 11-6 in the SEC, and Arkansas, 19-11, 8-9, in the CBS televised 1 p.m. regular SEC season finale at Walton Arena?

Probably not much, foresees Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman, always viewing every game its own entity.

The Tennessee tumble marked the lone anomaly for his consistently hard-playing if not always consistent Hogs taking a start-tofinish physical whipping. It was addressed in a film session apparently outlasting two double features plus coming attractions.

“I promise you our film session was very long,” Arkansas senior Kamani Johnson said. “As a team we took accountability. It’s March now. We’ve got to win and move on.”

The Hogs played Tuesday trapped at 12th-ranked defensively deadly Tennessee between a gut-wrenching 86-83 loss last Saturday at nationally No. 2 SEC champion Alabama and today’s emotional Walton season finale vs. the SEC’s bluest basketball blue blood.

Meanwhile Vanderbilt, an earlyseason winner in Nashville, Tenn, over Arkansas, has won seven of eight since clobbered 101-44 at Alabama. Even losing injured star center Liam Robbins Wednesday couldn’t sink the Commodores though Kentucky tried.

“You’ve got to give them (Vandy) credit,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said. “We fought like heck. We’re fine. We can still write our own story.”

The Wildcats fought losing point guard Cason Wallace to injury with early-season starting point guard Sahvir Wheeler already out undergoing recent surgery.

Wallace was deemed possible playing today.

Kentucky midseason struggled and was speculated nearing its NCAA Tournament bid deathbed.

Now AP ranked 23rd, Calipari’s Cats are a NCAA Tournament lock.

“’ Coach Cal did a great job when they went through a little bit of a struggle,” Musselman said. “They’ve put themselves in a very solid position for the NCAA Tournament,”

Arkansas appears NCAA Tournament iffier should it lose today and next week suffer a one-and-done SEC Tournament. But Musselman believes the Hogs’ 11-2 tough nonconference and playing NCAA Tourney- bound Alabama, Texas A&M, Missouri and Kentucky twice in an unbalanced SEC schedule states their case.

Another Oscar-winning performance would help. Arkansas held 2021-2022 National Player of the Year Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe, averaging 16.5 points and 13.1 rebounds, to seven and seven at Rupp.

Arkansas netted cohesively huge games in Lexington from twin big men Makhel Mitchell and Makhi Mitchell, forward Jordan Walsh and guards Ricky Council, Devo Davis, and Anthony Black.

Since returned freshman flash Nick Smith still was injured then.

“I think we did a good job of being alert to where he (Tshiebwe) was on the floor,” Musselman said. “But every game’s got its own theme.”