Tag: Arkansas LSU

Arkansas-LSU is college baseball’s best rivalry

Forget the Golden Boot. LSU owns it and always will. But in baseball? Yes, that’s the rivalry LSU-Arkansas rivalry and it’s glorious.

When the SEC expanded in football late last year and each team was provided two permanent opponents, a segment of the Arkansas football fan base clamored for LSU.

The segment was small, but many of the people within it had something in common: they were old.

Arkansas and LSU have played for the Golden Boot Trophy since 1996. The Tigers have claimed it 19 times. Arkansas, on the other hand, doesn’t even have 19 winning seasons 1996. The rivalry game mostly just came to fruition because of geographical border touching, though it bore fruit when a number of games in the late 1990s and early 2000s proved climactic, leading that aforementioned generation of people to hold tightly to game.

Arkansas-LSU is a rivalry, certainly. But it isn’t because of football.

The two teams are set to go for a three-game series inside Baum-Walker Stadium starting on Thursday with the Razorbacks the No. 1 team in the nation and LSU at No. 6. Both teams are considered national-championship contenders.

Which is nothing new. LSU has made nine College World Series and won two national championships since 2000. Arkansas has not captured a crown yet, but coach Dave Van Horn has taken the Diamond Hogs to Omaha, Nebraska, seven times since becoming Arkansas head coach in 2003. The teams are almost always next to each other in the SEC West pennant race and standings throughout the year.

LSU is a little more dinged entering the series this year. The Tigers have lost both their first two series in SEC play this year (Mississippi State and Florida), whereas Arkansas is sitting pretty atop the league with just one conference loss – Sunday’s finale against Auburn.

By no means will the winner of the series this weekend in Fayetteville seal up some sort of magical honor as the SEC’s best. The league is too deep, too tough to make such proclamations three weeks into conference play. It isn’t SEC basketball, after all. But for the purposes of the king of the mountain in the best baseball conference in the country, the Diamond Hogs-Tigers rivalry will provide some firepower.

Sounds like he’s returning – Khalif Battle: “I’m a Razorback til the end”

Woooo! Talk about some good news. KB plans to return to Hogs in 2024-25.

Arkansas guard Khalif Battle said after the Razorbacks’ win over LSU on Wednesday that he planned to return to the team in 2024-25.

Battle has scored 42, 36, 34 and 29 points in his last four games, setting the record for the highest-scoring four-game stretch in the SEC in the last 20 years. His breakout during the last three weeks has coincided with Arkansas’ best stretch of the season.

During the post-game press conference Wednesday, Battle was asked what his plans may be next year. He has a year of eligibility left.

“I’m a Razorback,” he said. “I’m a Razorback til the end.”

The remarks may have been in the passion of the post-game moment, but are clearly a positive for his return to the team next season, even in an era in which the transfer portal has created a multitude of questions for teams across the country.

For the season Battle has averaged more than 13 points per game and has shot more than 85% from the free-throw line. He has shot a double-digit number of free throws in each of his last five games. Arkansas has gone 3-2 in that stretch.

The win Wednesday lifted the Razorbacks to 15-15 overall and 6-11 in SEC play. Arkansas will close its regular season Saturday at Alabama.

Razorbacks shoot 61%, knock off LSU to close Bud Walton Arena

Would it be an Arkansas win if we didn’t ask “Where has this been all season?”

It wouldn’t be an Arkansas basketball game if during the good performances, folks didn’t ask the same question.

Where has this been?

The Razorbacks beat LSU on Wednesday night, 94-83, to close out their home campaign at Bud Walton Arena behind a strong defense and some hot shooting.

As a team, Arkansas shot 61% from the floor and picked up double-digit scoring games from Khalif Battle (29), El Ellis (16) and Makhi Mitchell (19). On the defensive end, the Hogs limited LSU until the final five minutes to a field goal percentage below 40% and ultimately a 5-of-18 mark from 3-point range.

The curious thing was Arkansas was in control just about the entire way. The home bunch took the lead three minutes into the game and never lost it. They outshined LSU in just about every meaningful team statistic except second-change points.

Arkansas’ win gives the team a chance to finish the regular season with a winning record. The Hogs things out Saturday at Alabama. The following week, the Razorbacks will head to the SEC Tournament with a seed to-be-determined.

Razorbacks to honor nine seniors, host LSU in home-season finale

Senior Khalif Battle will challenge scoring record as Razorbacks host LSU in Bud Walton Arena.

With a winning or losing record still in the balance, the Arkansas basketball team will look to return to the break-even mark Wednesday night when rival LSU comes to Bud Walton Arena for a 6 p.m. tip-off.

Arkansas (14-15, 5-11 SEC) nearly pulled off a huge upset at No. 15 Kentucky on Saturday, but got the short end of the foul parade and stumbled late to a 111-102 loss.

A win or loss against the Tigers (16-13, 8-8 SEC) won’t mean much in the big picture, as Arkansas would need a miracle run to win the upcoming SEC Tournament, regardless. But I win over their long-time adversary would at least be a feather in the cap.

It will be Senior Night, so all nine of the Razorbacks’ seniors will be recognized, led by four-year Hog, Davonte “Devo” Davis.

The only real question is whether senior Khalif Battle can become the first Razorback to ever score at least 30 points in his fourth straight game. The 6-foot-5 Temple-transfer has lit up the scoreboard of late, knocking down a career-high 42 against Missouri, followed by 36 against Vanderbilt, then 34 in Saturday’s loss to Kentucky.

He helped bolster his output by making an astounding 45-of-49 free throws – 91.8 percent – over those three games.

Battle and former Hog Mason Jones are the only two players to tally three straight 30-point games. Jones did it in 2020, while eventually being named SEC Player of the Year.

This will be the 79th time the Razorbacks and Tigers have met on the court, dating back to 1949, when LSU claimed a 62-46 win in Baton Rouge. The teams split their first 10 matchups, before Arkansas went on an 11-game win streak against the Tigers. The Hogs leads the all-time series, 42-36, including 38-31 since joining the SEC in 1991.

Arkansas has won four of the last six overall meetings, but did fall at LSU earlier this season, 95-74. The Razorbacks also hold a 23-8 advantage in games played in Fayetteville.

Wednesday’s game will air live on the SEC Network, with Mike Morgan and former Razorback Joe Kleine on the call.

Hogs given 53% chance to beat LSU in Wednesday’s Bud Walton finale

A little…surprising? LSU won the first meeting by 21 points.

Unpredictable.

Even with everything that has gone wrong with the Arkansas basketball team this season, that word is probably apt in describing the Razorbacks’ season.

After a week that saw Arkansas lose at home to 13th-place Vanderbilt, the Hogs turned around and played one of their best games of the season Saturday at Kentucky. They still lost, but considering the Wildcats’ status as a potential national champion, the only left to be desired, really, was the win.

It’s also a word – unpredictable – that describes what the computers think of the Hogs, too, which is why it’s hard to figure out why Arkansas was given a 53% chance to beat LSU on Wednesday in Razorbacks’ home finale at Bud Walton Arena.

Arkansas has only a 3-5 record in SEC play in front of its home fans this year. LSU has three more conference wins overall and has won four of its last five games in a better-than-expected season for the Bayou Bengals. LSU also beat Arkansas by 21 points when the teams met earlier this year in Baton Rouge.

To the computers, home still counts for something, apparently. To the fans? It will be interesting to see the crowd that shows for the most disappointing Arkansas season in more than a decade.

Behind the Box: Hogs come back down to Earth in Baton Rouge beatdown

In what has become a common theme, the Hogs were blown out yet again. Let’s take a look at what went wrong in Baton Rouge and this season.

It’s pretty obvious that [autotag]Arkansas basketball[/autotag]’s win over was more a case of Missouri just being really bad than the Hogs finally figuring things out.

After their 91-84 victory in Colombia on Wednesday night, Arkansas travelled to Baton Rouge and were thoroughly beaten wire-to-wire by an average LSU team.

Instead of the road win over Missouri being another potential turning point in the season, the Hogs fell back into their old ways and were ran out of the Pete Maravich Center, 95-74. Unlike some of this team’s other losses this season, the effort and energy was there throughout the entire game, but the execution was missing.

LSU was able to exploit issues on both sides of the floor that have consistently sunk Arkansas this season. Let’s take a closer look at why the Razorbacks were blown out yet again and what has kept them from being competitive throughout the majority of SEC play.

Photo gallery: Arkansas’ lack of defense leads to failure at LSU

We gather here today at this funeral to remember the life that Arkansas basketball once held.

The images from Saturday’s game between Arkansas and LSU likely won’t go down in history.

They are historic, though.

Arkansas’ 95-74 loss to the Tigers down in Baton Rouge marked, by our estimation, the moment the Razorbacks’ NCAA Tournament hopes ended. With a seventh loss in conference play, even if the Hogs won every single regular-season game from this point on, past committee selections suggest Arkansas wouldn’t make the Big Dance.

To say the Razorbacks went out with a whimper would be accurate.

Arkansas allowed LSU, which won only two SEC games last year, to shoot 55% from the floor and make 12 3-point baskets. LSU built a double-digit lead less than seven minutes into the game and the visiting team never recovered.

The Hogs would ultimately still make the NCAA Tournament if they were to go on a miracle run through the SEC Tournament a la Georgia in 2008. UGA won four SEC games during the regular season then won four in a row in the league tournament and made the Dance as a No. 14-seed.

At this point, that’s the best kind of finish Arkansas can hope for.

Everything Eric Musselman said after Arkansas was blasted by LSU

Eric Musselman answered questions resignedly after Arkansas was absolutely steamrolled by LSU on Saturday.

Jalen Graham was available at Arkansas’ post-game press conference within five minutes of the Razorbacks’ loss to LSU on Saturday.

Why does that matter?

Normally, it takes 15 to 20 minutes before anyone arrives to speak to the media. Graham took three questions before he was hustled away by Arkansas sports information director Mike Cawood. Normally, 10 to 15 questions are asked, too.

When Arkansas coach Eric Musselman hopped on the Zoom meeting, he wasn’t angry in tone. Just resigned. Most of the answers he provided after Arkansas’ 95-74 defeat at the hands of the Tigers were similar to what he had said in the Razorbacks’ six previous SEC losses.

His team is bad. He knows it. He’s working on it.

That’s of little consolation to those cheering for the Hogs, of course, but at this point, what is he supposed to say? Things have gone south in a hurry for the program. So fast, in fact, the season feels a bit like Bret Bielema’s penultimate season coaching Arkansas football. Things were great until they weren’t.

Here’s exactly what Musselman had to say Saturday.

Stink. Stinkier. Stinkiest: Arkansas annhilated against mediocre LSU team

Arkansas basketball is hideous.

Three of the four most important players for the Arkansas basketball team entering the 2023-24 season were inconsequential for the Razorbacks on Saturday.

To the surprise of no one, the Hogs then lost.

Without preseason All-SEC forward Trevon Brazile (knee), four-year starter Devo Davis (absent) and their leading scorer in nonconference Khalif Battle zero second-half minutes), the Razorbacks lost to LSU, 95-74 sending Arkansas to 2-7 in SEC and back to .500 overall, 11-11.

Brazile hasn’t played since January 24 against Ole Miss. Davis has missed three games in a row and his status going forward is unclear and Battle has made just 10 of 50 field goals since December 30. Battle remains Arkansas’ second-leading scorer on the season by per-game average.

In other words, in game in which Arkansas allowed 95 points its defense clearly was inept. And in an SEC season in which Battle shoots that poorly and remains the No. 2 on the team, Arkansas’ offense is just as bad.

The defense was the worse of the two Saturday as LSU shot 55% from the field, including a 63% mark in the first half, leading to a 15-point halftime lead. Even when the Tigers struggled – they went more than five minutes without a field goal late in the second half – Arkansas managed to trim the lead to only 17 points.

Will Baker led all scorers with 25 points and teammate Jalen Cook added 20. Tramon Mark scored 20 points and Jalen Graham scored 18 to lead Arkansas.

Arkansas vs. LSU: How to watch, stream, listen, key players and more

Can the Eric Musselman’s Hogs start their first winning streak of SEC play when they face LSU today? Here’s how to catch all of the action.

The Arkansas Razorbacks (11-10, 2-6 SEC) have a golden opportunity to begin their first SEC winning streak of the season when they face the LSU Tigers (11-9, 3-4 SEC) later today.

Following the team’s 91-84 win over Missouri on Wednesday, the Hogs arrive in Baton Rouge with some newfound swagger and momentum that had been absent in their last eight contests.

[autotag]Tramon Mark[/autotag] looks to build off of another stellar offensive performance, where he eclipsed 20 points for the seventh tme this year. [autotag]Makhi Mitchell[/autotag] and [autotag]Jalen Graham[/autotag] are also coming off of arguably their best performances of the season.

Mitchell tied his career-high in points, 19, to go with 14 rebounds. It was his second straight double-double as he also notched 13 points and 12 rebounds in last Saturday’s loss to Kentucky.

Graham was extremely active on both ends of the floor on Wednesday and stuffed the stat sheet. He finished with 19 points, 4 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks, in what was easily his best defensive performance as a Hog.

The Pete Maravich Center in Baton Rouge hasn’t been the most friendly arena for the Razorbacks in recent years. They’ve only won one out of their last four games at LSU, the most recent one being last season’s disappointing 60-57 loss on the same night as the football team’s thrilling Liberty Bowl win over Kansas.

Entering Saturday’s game the Tigers are rested yet wounded as they’ve lost three straight games. Their last outing being a 109-88 blowout loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

It’s a prime opportunity for the Razorbacks to get another win and here’s how you can watch, listen and stream all of the action.