Through the first seven games of conference play, the Razorback cagers, other than traveling to Knoxville at the onset, have enjoyed about as easy a run as an SEC team can expect. Sure, there were a few ranked teams that came to Nam after the debacle at #1-ranked Tennessee, and the Hogs have yet to face another raucous and rowdy road test but soon will. Matter of fact, five outta the next seven games are versus Top 25 teams, including visits to #9 Kentucky, #13 Texas A&M and top-ranked Auburn.
Arkansas finally got off the snide by somehow sneaking past Georgia, as the Bulldogs literally stood around at the end of a game last week and allowed the Hogs to catch up, take the lead and steal their first conference victory in front of an embarrassingly small home crowd at BWA.
The team looked to parlay that win into another, when lowly one-win Oklahoma came to Nam over the weekend. Despite leading by 13 points in the second half, Coach Cal’s crew fell apart down the backstretch, turning the ball over, again and again, before finally completely self-destructing in the final minutes and losing by three points to the Sooners.
Strangely enough, as I watch this team struggle to score, it really reminds me of Musselman’s final Hogs team, which was also notorious for slow starts. That squad certainly missed its share of layups and 3 balls, as well. The current crew lacks any sorta pure shooter, and good teams need at least one. Someone to count on when the bricks start flying.
Melo Sanchez, a 6’5” portal transfer from Hawaii Pacific, who allegedly can fill it up from way out in the suburbs, has played a whole three minutes thus far, so something must be up with him. Johnelle Davis was advertised to be a long-range sharpshooter, though the former Florida Atlantic University player suffered a wrist injury earlier this year and has not shot the ball particularly well since. Last week he was a scorching 4-25 from deep – not exactly winning numbers.
The team as a whole has not shot well from anywhere against SEC foes, only making 40% or more of its shots once in 2025, and that went down at Missouri, where the Razorbacks were dismantled by a smooth 18 points.
As this team continues to fling 3s from here, there and everywhere, the losses will continue to pile up. Watching the Razorbacks Basketball ship gets dragged aimlessly out to sea, while sporting one, measly win is tough to bear. The only buckets this team has experienced in SEC play were fulla water, as they must continually bail out the leaky boat.
Lately, the Hogs have experienced one shooting drought after another. What began as an occasional occurrence (starting slowly) is evolving into a penal pattern. Mercifully, OU shot just as many bricks as the home team, allowing them to stick around in the first half. I mean, the score after seven-and-a-half minutes of play was 10-10. Then, the Hogs stormed outta the dressing room after halftime and promptly scored a whopping eight points in the first five minutes of the second half.
Yikes!
The time has come for some new blood to garner some PT. Big Z is finally healthy and looking better every game, and Billy Richmond III is starting to come around. Karter Knox was a knockdown shooter in high school, so maybe he needs more shots. Whatever the case, the clock is ticking, and March’ll be here before you know it. Hopefully, Coach Cal and co. will have some thangs figured out before then and some shooters dialed in. If not, then the only madness Arkansas hoop fans can expect to experience this spring will be frustration – for the second year in a row.
Go Hogs!