After teasing a turnaround in recent games, Arkansas men’s basketball fell flat in an embarrassing 85-82 loss to Vanderbilt at Bud Walton Arena on Tuesday.
The Hogs were riding a wave of momentum after back-to-back wins last week, but it was one step forward and a gigantic leap back as Jerry Stackhouse’s squad delivered another dagger to a dreadful season in Fayetteville.
Arkansas led by as many as 10 points early on before finding themselves down by 16 with just over six minutes remaining.
The Hogs made a furious late rally that fell as short as Tramon Mark’s potential game-tying three at the horn.
Back to .500 on the season. Twice as many losses as wins in SEC play. Not ideal…
Another head-scratching home loss. A wasted 36-point outburst from Khalif Battle. A splash of cold water to the face as a reminder of Arkansas’ most frustrating inconsistency: EFFORT.
“We’ve got to have more juice. I don’t know,” Battle said. “We have to rally together. We still have the conference tournament. We still have games ahead of us. We have to be ready to play for this next stretch.”
Some nights shots won’t fall. In others, the opponent might get red hot. A team can only truly control the controllable things — like effort, energy and enthusiasm — but for whatever reason the Hogs have had a hard time getting up for home games with regularity.
Against Vanderbilt, Arkansas played like its hair was on fire the first and last six minutes of the game. Everything in between left much to be desired.
Why is this a lingering issue for the Razorbacks? It is anyone’s guess at this point.
“I’m not sure,” Battle said. “I wish I knew. Things would be different.”
Arkansas has lost three straight to Vanderbilt, but Tuesday’s setback stands out as the most disappointing given the circumstances.
It was a reality check for the optimists who had held out hope a corner could be turned and a frustrating end result on a night where Arkansas had an opportunity to steal a victory despite playing awful most of the night.
“As bad as we played, including myself, we were one possession away,” Battle said. “One more stop. One more shot. One more rebound. That’s the part that’s the hardest to cope with right now. It’s tough.”
“I’m going to stay positive. We’ve had plenty of losses this year. Plenty of ups and downs. But we still have basketball left.”
Barring a miraculous run to an SEC Tournament title, the 2023-24 season can officially be chalked up as a failed experiment for an Arkansas team ranked in the top 15 of the country by media and coaches in the preseason.
The six home losses for the Razorbacks is the most since 2018-19. The damage includes falling to UNC Greensboro and Vanderbilt to go along with blowout losses to Auburn, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Arkansas has dropped eight games this season by double-figures, five of which by 20 or more points. The Hogs are 3-12 in Q1-2 games with two losses outside of the first two quadrants and zero wins over teams placed higher than 10th in the SEC standings.
So, what now for the Razorbacks? Well, the show must go on, and Eric Musselman finds himself back at square one with the calendar set to flip to March.
“We’ve got to get ready for Kentucky and then LSU and then Bama,” Musselman said. “Whoever else we play, if we have more than that I don’t know.
“We have to get ready for each and every game. Back to the drawing board.”
I haven’t heard anybody talk about why Jalen didn’t try why isn’t that?