Hogs fourth seed in West; will open against Vermont

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas, seeded fourth in the West Region, will face Vermont, the region’s No. 13 seed, on Thursday (Mar. 17) in the opening round of the 2022 NCAA Championship. The Razorbacks and Vermont will play in Buffalo’s KeyBank Center and the game will be televised on TBA.

Arkansas earns its 35th NCAA bid and second straight. This is the sixth time in program history Arkansas has earned a No. 4 seed and the 13th time to be among the top-4 seeds since the NCAA began its current seeding process for the 1979 championship. The previous #4 seeds came in 1999, 1993, 1990, 1983 and 1982.

Arkansas is 21-12 in NCAA Tournament openers and own a 45-33 all-time record in NCAA action.

The Razorbacks (25-8; 13-5 SEC) finished fourth in the SEC regular-season and are #20 in the both the NCAA NET and the KenPom.com ranking.

This was the 14th time Arkansas posted 25 wins and the marks the first time since the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons the Razorbacks accomplished the feat in back-to-back seasons.

The Hogs won at least 13 games in the SEC for just the fifth time in program history and it was the first time ever to accomplish the feat in back-to-back years.

Arkansas started the SEC season 0-3 (losing 5-of-6 overall) before turning its season around. After the 0-3 start in league play, Arkansas won its next eight conference games and became the first major conference team to win eight consecutive conference games immediately following an 0-3 (or worse) start to league play since UCLA accomplished the feat in 1981-82.

Overall, the Razorbacks won nine straight games, including a victory over West Virginia in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge and closed the regular-season by winning 14 of its final 16 games. Both losses came on the road versus QUAD1 opponents (Alabama and Tennessee) by a combined five points.

The Razorbacks accomplished its strong finish despite playing arguably the toughest schedule in the country (factually for the final five regular-season games).

Including the SEC Tournament, nine of Arkansas’ final 10 opponents are NCAA Quad 1 opponents, and the Hogs posted  7-3 record including wins over then No. 1 Auburn, then No. 16 Tennessee and then No. 6 Kentucky.

Other Quad 1 wins this season include a road win at Florida, a road win over then-No. 12 LSU, a home win over LSU and a win over LSU in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal.

Arkansas is 7-6 versus Quad 1 teams, 5-1 versus Quad 2, 6-1 versus Quad 3 and 7-0 versus Quad 4 teams.

This will be the first time Arkansas has faced Vermont.

Vermont, who has a Net of 52, won the America East tournament to be an automatic qualifier and posted a 28-5 record this season.

With a first-round win, Arkansas would face the winner of No. 5 UConn  and No. 12 New Mexico State on Saturday.