Arkansas basketball will have to win five days in as many days at the SEC Tournament in Nashville next week to extend its season to March Madness.
It is a feat no team in the league has accomplished with the tournament in its current format.
Arkansas has played much better basketball of late, but the Hogs are just 2-3 in their last five games and have not strung together more than three consecutive wins all season.
On Saturday, the Hogs pushed No. 16 Alabama to the brink on the road in the regular season finale before falling 92-88 in overtime.
“It’s our job as a team, as a unit, as a program to get better as the season progresses,” said head coach Eric Musselman. “And there’s no denying we’ve done that. Sometimes the wins haven’t come.
“We’ll go to Nashville and see what happens. It’s hard to win one game there. We have to get ourselves mentally ready and put this loss behind us and get to get ready to win the next game.”
The Razorbacks (15-16, 6-12 SEC) are the No. 12 seed and will face 13-seed Vanderbilt at 6 p.m. (CT) in the first game at Bridgestone Arena on SEC Network Wednesday.
Vandy stunned Arkansas with an 85-82 win over the Hogs at Bud Walton Arena on Feb. 27.
A win would send Arkansas to a Thursday matchup with 5-seed South Carolina roughly 16 hours later at 2:30 p.m. A date with a well-rested Auburn would loom with a victory on Friday.
Arkansas has depth at its disposal with contributing pieces like Jalen Graham, Keyon Menifield, Layden Blocker and Joseph Pinion available for the gauntlet, and the Hogs will hope to heal up their regulars before hitting the road.
“We’ll get back, everybody that’s banged up will get healthy and go into that game as healthy as possible with a lot of confidence,” said redshirt sophomore forward Trevon Brazile.
“We’re going to take it one at a time starting with Wednesday.”