GAME STORY: Bubble Hogs give “dud” performance in ugly 72-53 road loss to SEC bottom-feeder South Carolina on Saturday

By Kevin McPherson

While not a certainty, the Arkansas Razorbacks might have been poised to lock up an NCAA Tournament at-large bid with a road win over South Carolina on Saturday in Columbia, S.C., but instead the SEC bottom-feeder Gamecocks played spoiler with a start-to-finish dominant performance in a 72-53 home victory over the inept Hogs.

Sleep-walking out of the gates, Arkansas suffered a myriad of self-inflicted wounds (missed layups and dunks, unforced turnovers, rushed three-point shots, long stretches without scoring, porous interior defense, etc.) while the host Gamecocks dropped the hammer en route to a 32-14 halftime lead — the 14 points was a season low for points scored in a half by an SEC team this season — and the Hogs’ downward spiral continued into the second half as Carolina first reached a 30-point lead at 50-20 with 12:12 remaining in the game. At that juncture, the Razorbacks had shot only 5-of-35 overall from the field (14.3%), including 0-of-15 from 3. From there, the Gamecocks would lead by as many as 35 points before settling on their 19-point win, which is now Arkansas’ second largest margin of defeat on the season.

Playing a second consecutive game without star junior forward Adou Thiero – an update with sourced information regarding the severity of his knee injury and the potential consquences is included at the start of my HogvilleNET youtube live segment linked above – the Hoop Hogs (17-12, 6-10 SEC, NCAA NET No. 40) had won two consecutive games (both at home) as part of winning 6 of their previous 10 outings, but now they’re in danger of once again sliding to the bad part of the NCAAT Bubble with only two remaining regular-season games prior to the start of the SEC Tournament on March 12.

The Razorbacks are now assured of the program’s third consecutive season of finishing with a losing record in conference games.

Arkansas was seeking to pick up its third Quad-2 SEC win, including its first on the road, but instead suffered its third Q2 SEC loss.

The Razorbacks are 4-9 in Q1 games (three of those wins were earned against teams ranked Top 20 in NET). They’re now 2-3 in Q2, 4-0 in Q3, and 7-0 in Q4.

“They (the Gamecocks) were really aggressive, but you know, I told the guys after … ‘Folks, we’ve been through a gauntlet, just like South Carolina.’ If you want to know what I told Coach (South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris) when I walked down, I said ‘If you played all home games, you’d be top-10’, because they play really well in this building. They beat Texas the same way they beat us. It was almost a carbon copy.

“Somebody’s got to make a shot. When you’re 0-for-17, you’re not going to be in a good game. I told them, ‘Eight games like we played, you were due for a dud’. It was a dud. Move on. Now, what they did to us, they exploited us near the basket, which my guess is, every team will try to do now. So, we’ve got to figure that out, but I said burn the tape, and let’s get ready for Vandy.”

The Razorbacks fell to 4-8 away from home (that’s 3-6 in true road games, including a 2-6 mark in SEC road games, and 1-2 in neutral-site tilts). They’re 13-4 at home on the season (that’s 12-4 at BWA, including 4-4 in SEC home games, and 1-0 at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock).

Arkansas was projected third among the “Last Four Byes” teams (a.k.a. on the NCAAT Bubble as a 10-seed at-large-bid qualifier) in ESPN’s latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology update that was released on Friday.

As stated above, Saturday’s loss to South Carolina (12-17, 2-14 SEC, NET No. 91) could be damaging enough to drop the Razorbacks to the bad part of the Bubble (a.k.a. no longer projected to receive an NCAAT at-large bid) — maybe, maybe not — but either way it leaves Arkansas needing to win at least one of its last two regular season games, perhaps both, to feel secure that it has done enough to lock up an NCAAT at-large bid prior to the SECT.

Despite the loss, it’s been a significant course-correction for the Hogs spanning the last several weeks that has revived their NCAAT at-large-bid hopes following the program’s unprecedented string of five straight losses to begin SEC play.

The loss to the Gamecocks dropped Arkansas to 23-18 in the all-time series between the two programs, including 8-9 in Columbia, S.C.

In the end, the Hogs shot 15-of-52 from the field (28.8%) for the game, including 3-of-22 from 3 (13.6%), and 20-of-27 from the free throw line (74.1%). South Carolina shot 25-of-53 overall from the field (47.2%), including 5-of-14 from 3 (35.7%), and 17-of-21 on freebies (81.0%).

Arkansas was dominated to the tune of minus-20 in points-in-the-paint (38-18) while losing overall rebounds (35-32), turnovers (13-12), points-off-turnovers (15-14), and assists (16-8). The Razorbacks won offensive rebounds (10-5), second-chance-points (6-4), fastbreak scoring (13-7), bench scoring (19-15), blocks (5-1), and steals (8-7).

Carolina star forward Collin Murray-Boyles scored a game-high 35 points (12-of-16 field goals and 11-of-12 free throws) to go with 7 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 assists. Big man Nick Pringle finished with 18 points (7-of-11 field goals and 4-of-5 free throws)  to go with 9 rebounds and 2 steals.

Senior big man Jonas Aidoo had a double-double off the bench for the Hogs (10 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 assist) while freshman wing Karter Knox led the team in scoring with 11 points (2-of-6 field goals, including 1-of-3 from 3, and 6-of-6 free throws). Freshman wing Billy Richmond III scored 9 points (3-of-7 field goals and 3-of-4 free throws).

Arkansas’ three available leading scorers on the season — senior guard Johnell Davis, sophomore guard DJ Wagner, and seophomore center Zvonimir Ivisic — combined for only 21 points on a collective 7-of-27 field goal shooting (25.9%). Wagner’s glaring turnover issues as a lead guard continued as he suffered a game-high 4 giveaways, while Davis and Ivisic combined for 1-of-5 free throw shooting. Junior forward Trevon Brazile chipped in 2 points, 6 rebounds, 1 block, and 3 turnovers.

Next up for the Razorbacks is another road game — at Vanderbilt on Tuesday, March 4 (9 p.m. CT, SEC Network).

Against South Carolina on Saturday, Calipari started Brazile, Knox, Wagner, Davis, and Ivisic for the second consecutive game.