Beating Kentucky, Missouri on road got Hogs into Top 25, but they have to keep winning to stay that, said Jason Carroll of Pig Trail Nation.
Hogs break into national rankings with No. 24 spot in AP poll
Arkansas’ big road wins last week over Kentucky and No. 10 Missouri has vaulted them into the Associated Press Top 25 — barely — at No. 24.
It is the first time in three years the Hogs have made it into the rankings.
The Tigers had an 0-2 week last week and fell to No. 20. Alabama (8) and Tennessee (19) are the only other SEC teams to be ranked.
The Hogs’ game against Florida (17 votes in the poll this week) on Tuesday night will be the first home game as a ranked team since being 18th and LSU came to Fayetteville on March 7, 2015.
The last time Arkansas was ranked was the 2017-18 season, moving to No. 22 after an overtime win over No. 19 Tennessee, but that didn’t last long.
Back-to-back road losses at Mississippi State and Auburn kicked the Hogs out of the poll.
When the Razorbacks welcome Florida, which received 17 votes in this week’s AP Poll, to Bud Walton Arena on Tuesday, it will be their first home game as a ranked team since hosting LSU as the No. 18 team on March 7, 2015.
Murphy on Hogs’ defense picking up in overtime win over Missouri
Democrat-Gazette writer Tom Murphy on The Morning Rush on Monday morning recapping Arkansas’ key win in overtime over Tigers.
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Tye & Tommy on the win over Mizzou, new Razorback football commit, Tom Murphy and more!
Bucknam disappointed placing second in team totals at Tyson Invitational
No. 3 Arkansas completed its quest to produce national qualifier during this weekend’s Tyson Invitational, while falling just short of winning the team title.
Among a national caliber field of teams competing inside Randal Tyson Track Center, Texas edged the Razorbacks in team scoring, 82-76, with Alabama (68) and Florida State (66) in a tight finish for third place. The rest of the field included Oregon (60), LSU (48.5), Texas A&M (40.5), and Florida (38).
“It was good meet, and we got a lot of things done this weekend,” stated Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “I was a little disappointed that we didn’t come out on top of the team scoring at the end. Texas had 82 points and we were second with 76.
“You can see how balanced all these teams are and it shows you the type of competition we’re up against. It was a great meet all around with some great individual performances.”
In addition to qualifying the distance medley relay for the NCAA Championships, the Razorbacks also wanted to get individuals qualified in distance events. Saturday’s mission involved the 5,000m, which was won by Amon Kemboi in 13:38.85 while teammates followed in places 3-4-5-9-10-11-13.
That time currently ranks fifth in the nation, and placed Kemboi at No. 4 on the Arkansas all-time list. Joining Kemboi with times that penetrated the all-time UA list were Gilbert Boit, clocking 13:40.20 to move to No. 6, Jacob McLeod with a 13:41.26 which ranks No. 8, along with a 13:42.59 for Matt Young that is now No. 11.
“Amon is a special athlete, and I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Bucknam. “It would have been nice to just run him once this weekend, but we needed that DMR. He had no problem taking the stick for us on the anchor.
“Having him come back and running what he did in the 5k just shows you what kind of athlete he is. I’m also proud of Gilbert Boit, who decided to slow a bit with a mile to go, then picked it up and really made that race roll at the end. It was a good group of distance runners with all those kids in the race and I’m pleased with how they performed. Hopefully, those times will get them into the NCAA Championship.”
The next wave of Razorbacks in the 5,000m included Myles Richter (14:11.46), Ryan Murphy (14:17.42), Emmanuel Cheboson (14:19.24), and Josh Shearer (14:52.64).
Kieran Taylor produced a career best of 1:48.32 in finishing third in the 800m a day after giving his all in running the opening 1,200m leg of the DMR. Following with PRs in the race were Reese Walters (1:51.86), Luke George (1:52.34) and Ethan Carney (1:53.45).
“Kieran is such a great team player,” stated Bucknam. “He ran the lead leg of the DMR on Friday night, and it’s a real stretch for him distance-wise. He was seeing stars after that race, it really knocked him out. I’m proud of his effort, but he really belongs on that 800m leg when we finally put that together, because that’s his specialty.
“The other thing that helped us is that we had a good race from Andrew Kibet, who missed a couple of months of critical training after the cross country season. He’s just coming back. Opening up with a 4:02 is going to give us that lead-off leg in the DMR. Then we can put KT back in that 800m leg belongs in. It was good to finally see Kibet compete.”
Kibet clocked a career best of 4:02.27 to place sixth while Tommy Romanow also ran a PR in winning his section and placing ninth overall in 4:09.76. Kibet bettered his previous best of 4:04.51 while Romanow improved upon his 4:19.60 debut earlier this season.
Alabama’s Eliud Kipsang won the mile in 3:56.88 over a pair of Longhorns, Yusuf Bizimana (3:57.81) and Crayton Carrozza (3:59.79), with Oregon’s EJ Holland (3:59.95) completing the sub-4 mile crew.
Ryan Brown placed fourth in a very competitive triple jump, hitting a distance of 52-3 ¾ (15.94). The leading trio included Oregon’s Emmanuel Ihemeje (53-7 ¾ | 16.35), Sean Dixon-Bodie of LSU (53-6 ¼ | 16.31), and Alabama’s Christian Edwards (53-6 ¼ | 16.31).
Winning pair of road games this week sets up interesting finish to season
When Arkansas couldn’t close out a win over Missouri in Columbia in regulation Saturday afternoon, you’re excused if you didn’t hold out a lot of hope for a win.
“Often you see a team that’s right there on the verge of winning when they’re on the road and the game goes into overtime, you see an emotional letdown,” Eric Musselman said after the 86-81 win. “You see a team kind of hang their head because it was right there in regulation for us to win.”
However this season plays out the rest of the way, you might want to go ahead and highlight this game.
It’s one the Hogs for a couple of decades now have figure out a way to lose.
Instead, Jalen Tate’s block of a Missouri shot with 21 seconds left held the Hogs’ one-point lead and Moses Moody knocked down free throws and the SEC winning streak continues at six games.
Maybe the biggest thing is it’s now back-to-back league road wins over a Kentucky team that can’t figure out how to win a game and a Top 10 team in Missouri that was missing a key player.
Don’t start qualifying wins. Yes, the Tigers’ were without Jeremiah Tilmon, who missed the game because of a death in the family.
Near the end of Musselman’s post-game press conference Saturday he was asked what it was like to play the Tigers without Tilmon on the floor, but he wasn’t taking the bait on that one.
“I don’t know, I wonder what it was like for them to play us without Justin (Smith) in game one,” Musselman said while unwrapping another Jolly Rancher piece of candy. “Obviously they missed him. Our thoughts are with him and his family.”
Smith stepped up big in this one, leading the Hogs with 19 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals.
“That was his best game as a Razorback,” Musselman said.
With all of that, though, it came down to the officials reversing a goal-tending call against Tate on his block, then playing defense.
“Tate knew he didn’t goal-tend,” Musselman said. “It was either going to be their ball or our ball on the baseline out of bounds. We did a good job not giving up an easy catch. We had really active hands.”
No, this one still counts as a huge win, regardless who Missouri put on the floor. It’s the first win over a Top 25 opponent for the Hogs this year and will come in handy when they start handing out post-season tournament bids.
“It’s a great win anytime you can beat a top 10 team on the road,” Musselman said.
It counts.
And it shows how Musselman has managed a team that some fans had given up for dead after back-to-back road losses back in mid-January against LSU and Alabama.
“I’m just really proud of our team’s growth,” he said later.
As a result, this team is now 16-5 overall and 8-4 in the SEC. But it gets tougher in the final five or six games (there’s a makeup game with Texas A&M at Bud Walton Arena to be scheduled).
Home games with Florida, Alabama, LSU and the Aggies are wrapped around road trips to Texas A&M and South Carolina.
“Incredibly difficult schedule coming up with some really, really good teams,” Musselman said. “We felt it was really important this week to try and go 2-0.”
Add in a win over a Top 10 team and it will be huge in about a month.
But the Hogs can’t waste this week’s road wins by dropping too many games in this final stretch.
It will be an interesting finish to the regular season.
Moody on Hogs winning back-to-back SEC games on road this week
Arkansas’ Moses Moody (16 points, 5 rebounds) talked with the media after the 86-81 overtime win over the Tigers to finish good week.
Musselman after Razorbacks get big overtime road win over No. 10 Missouri
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman was pleased with the play to stay focused in overtime, knocking off the Tigers behind Justin Smith’s big game.
Gear sets new school mark in mile leading Hogs to top team finish
The second day of the Tyson Invitational provided more superlatives from the No. 1 Razorbacks as they claimed a fifth consecutive team victory this indoor season while the highlight performance was a school record in the mile by Krissy Gear.
Facing a field of nationally ranked teams, the Razorbacks produced another dominant team victory with 140 points, as Alabama (64) and Oregon (62) battled for the runner-up position. The rest of the field included Texas A&M (52), Texas (51), Florida (49), Florida State (42), and LSU (28).
“We’re super elated,” said Razorback women’s head coach Lance Harter. “We ran our DMR to get it qualified last night, so Krissy Gear came back in the mile today and rewrote the record book with a 4:31. She just did a fantastic job.
“We had a bunch of Razorbacks run lifetime bests behind her, so our depth really showed through between the 3,000 and DMR yesterday and coming back in the mile today. Everybody is walking away healthy, so we’re looking forward to even greater things in two weeks.”
Clocking a time of 4:31.83 to finish comfortably ahead of Alabama’s Amaris Tyynismaa (4:33.22), Gear surpassed the previous Arkansas school record of 4:32.48 set in 2015 by Dominique Scott on Kentucky’s oversized track. Gear’s previous best in the mile this season was a 4:38.22 from the Arkansas Invitational back in January while her career best was a 4:36.59 from 2020 in a race on the oversized track at Washington.
“It was a big confidence booster, I didn’t think I had it in me,” said Gear, who split 4:34.25 on the 1,600m leg of the distance medley relay Friday evening. “I went into it with a mindset of don’t think, just race. Obviously, our team is so deep, so it helped having teammates to push me up as well as others in the race. The field was so strong.”
The time by Gear ranks second among collegians this season as Colorado’s Sage Hurta ran 4:31.80 Saturday on an oversized track at Iowa State. Splits for Gear included 1:07.77, 2:17.56, and 3:26.95, while the last two laps were run in 64.89 with a final circuit of 32.17.
“When I looked at the scoreboard, I thought oh, I set a PR,” Gear noted. “There were so many PR’s listed for Arkansas as well as other teams. It was so exciting and I’m so happy. I asked if I was finally able to make the top 10 list, since I wasn’t able to do that last year. Then they told me my time was above Nikki Hiltz and Dom Scott.
“I really don’t have any words for that. To know that I’m on par where they were in college, I guess gives me hope for the future.”
Razorback teammates finishing behind Gear in places 3-4-7-9 included Lauren Gregory (4:34.19), Katie Izzo (4:34.39), Gracie Hyde (4:37.57), and Logan Morris (4:42.29).
Izzo moved to No. 7 on the Arkansas all-time list while Gregory has a better time of 4:32.92 which now ranks No. 4. Hyde added another career best to her impressive collection this indoor season.
In another section of the mile, Isabel Van Camp won with a career best of 4:43.65 with Taylor Ewert a step behind in a PR of 4:43.78. They placed 11th and 12th overall. Career best efforts were also attained by Quinn Owen (4:44.96) and Josie Carson (4:57.46), with Abby Gray (4:49.22) splitting their finish from another section.
A national record was broken in the 800m as Shafiqua Maloney won the race in 2:04.65, improving upon her previous mark of 2:05.52 as the national record holder for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Maloney’s splits in the victory included 30.53, 31.69 [1:02.22], 31.67 [1:33.89], 30.76.
Maloney nearly won by a full second over Florida’s Gabrielle Wilkinson (2:05.57) and Valery Tobias of Texas (2:05.65). Razorback Kennedy Thomson (2:09.74) finished ninth.
Another event area that provided a bulk of points was the pole vault where Bailee McCorkle won for the second consecutive week in leading an Arkansas 1-2-3-4-6 finish. This time McCorkle cleared 14-2 (4.32) while a pair of teammates joined her over 14 feet.
“In the pole vault we put together three vaulters over 14 feet with Bailee McCorkle gaining the win,” said Harter. “Then our 200m runners showed great depth. The momentum is in our favor.”
Nastassja Campbell and Mackenzie Hayward both vaulted over 14-0 (4.27) in placing second and third. Kaitlyn Banas (13-8 ¼ | 4.17) and Grace Ridgeway (12-6 ½ | 3.82) both set career best heights in placing fourth and sixth.
Jayla Hollis led the Razorback sprinters in the 200m, clocking a 23.25 to place fourth behind the trio of Kynnedy Flannel of Texas (22.73), Alabama’s Tamara Clark (22.89), and Talitha Diggs of Florida (22.94).
The Arkansas crew included Rosey Effiong (23.45), Jada Baylark (23.49), Tiana Wilson (23.66), Kethlin Campbell (23.97), Morgan Burks-Magee (24.02), and Daszay Freeman (24.96).
The 4×400 capped the Tyson Invitational with a collegiate record as Texas A&M won in 3:26.27 to break the previous mark of 3:27.03 in 2017. Finishing behind the Aggies were Texas (3:32.64), Florida (3:34.02) and Arkansas (3:36.46).
Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
Vanover on staying ready sitting on bench first half, then playing well second half
Razorbacks’ Connor Vanover (12 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 assists) on just staying ready after sitting out much of first half in win over Tigers.
Hogs-Gators here, ESPN Arkansas stations, pregame at 5:30
• Who: Arkansas Razorbacks (16-5, 8-4 SEC) vs. Florida Gators (10-5, 6-4 SEC)
• What: Razorbacks first time in the AP top 25 since Jan. 6, 2018.
• When: Tuesday, Feb. 16, 6 p.m. (pregame starts at 5:30 p.m.)
• Where: Nolan Richardson Court at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville
• TV: ESPN2 (Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes) CLICK HERE
• ONLINE: HitThatLine.com LISTEN HERE
• Radio: ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home (Chuck Barrett and Matt Zimmerman)
Arkansas, ranked No. 24 in the country, hosts Florida tonight at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.
Pregame coverage starts at 5:30 p.m. and you can LISTEN HERE or on the radio at ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.
Chuck Barrett and Matt Zimmerman will have all the coverage.
• This will be the 39th meeting in the series. The Gators are the Razorbacks’ second-most, infrequently played team in the SEC (behind South Carolina at 35).
The Gators own a 26-12 advantage in the series with all meetings coming since Arkansas joined the SEC. However, the Hogs own a slight 8-7 advantage in games played in Fayetteville.
• Arkansas has lost three straight in the series, 11 of the last 12 and 17 of the last 19.
• With six straight SEC wins, Arkansas shot up the national polls this week, landing at #24 in the Associated Press poll and “ No. 28” in the USA Today-Coaches poll.
It marks the first time Arkansas has been ranked since Jan. 6, 2018 when the Razorbacks were No. 22 in the AP.
• This is Arkansas’ first six-game, SEC win streak since winning seven-straight SEC games in February 2015. The Hogs also won seven-straight SEC games to end the 1994-95 regular season.
• After wins at Kentucky and Missouri, Moses Moody was named the College Sports Madness SEC Player of the Week for a second time this season.
• In 6-of-the-last-7 games, Arkansas shot over 43 percent from the field each time and has combined to shoot 48.4% (182-376) in those six contests.
