The Arkansas Razorbacks entered the college basketball season with high hopes and aspirations. They were projected to be a lock to make the tournament, but that might not be the case.
John Calipari’s team has been up and down this season. They play in one of the toughest conferences in the game, and there’s not much margin of error in the SEC.
That’s why Neil Paine of ESPN doesn’t seem to love their chances right now. If they want to partake in The Dance and star in March Madness, they need to take care of business now.
Arkansas needs to beat Vanderbilt to get to the tournament, says analyst
“Coming off a pair of wins over Mizzou and Texas that revitalized its tourney chances, Arkansas came out as flat as it gets in Saturday’s loss at South Carolina, scoring just 14 points in the first half before eventually getting crushed in a landslide loss. It dropped the Razorbacks’ odds in the ESPN Analytics forecast from around 50-50 to below 40%, and knocked their SEC record to 6-10,” wrote Paine.
Their setback on Saturday has now put them against the wall. With just a 34% chance of being invited to the tournament, they will desperately have to beat Vanderbilt:
“The conference is slated to send 13 teams to the Dance in the latest version of Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology, and the Hogs went into the day ranked 12th in the SEC in NET, though they also trailed bubble rivals including UGA and Texas. Arkansas remains a borderline top-50 team by SOR or WAB with some signature wins to its name, but Saturday’s loss is one coach John Calipari probably wants back. Tuesday’s matchup with fellow bubble team Vanderbilt has big tourney implications now,” he added.
Of course, they have more than enough talent and a good coaching staff to pull this off. Then again, given their inconsistency, you never know what version of them you’ll get.