The packed-to-the-rafters crowd. The technical fouls. The dunks. The jawing. It was the like 1990s all over again.
Arkansas and Kentucky had a bit of everything on Saturday in both teams’ regular-season finale from Bud Walton Arena. Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, like many of those 1990s games, Kentucky left the victors, an 88-79 win leaving Arkansas in a tenuous position ahead of the SEC Tournament.
The Razorbacks will head to the conference tourney next week with a seeding yet unknown, but likely to be between No. 7 and No. 10. Theoretically, such a spot see them re-meet with Kentucky in the quarterfinals after the Wildcats clinched the No. 3-seed with Saturday’s win.
Arkansas played almost the entire second half without star defender Devo Davis after he was tagged with multiple fouls and disqualified because of them almost immediately after halftime.
Arkansas pulled to within five points multiple times after Kentucky built its lead as large as 12 points with Davis out of the game. But in a chippy game, the Razorbacks inability to score inside (they went 2 of 20 on lay-ups) played an outsize role.