behind the box – Syndication Server

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.

Behind the Box Score: Hogs embarrassed at home thanks to familiar issues

The warning signs have been there but the numbers make it crystal clear: Arkansas is just not a good basketball team this year.

Energy, effort and enthusiasm are the three “E’s” that [autotag]Eric Musselman[/autotag] has preached since arriving in Fayetteville. He wants his teams to personify those three words when they’re on the floor.

Unfortunately, those qualities have been absent from this [autotag]Arkansas basketball[/autotag] team, and were nowhere to be found in their 77-64 loss to South Carolina on Saturday afternoon.

The Razorbacks never led at all and were completely outclassed by the Gamecocks in all phases of the game for most of Saturday’s contest. There was no energy, no effort, and certainly no enthusiasm to be found.

With the home loss to South Carolina, Arkansas basketball just saw their NCAA Tournament hopes go up in flames. Most bracketologists have the Hogs eliminated from at-large consideration. That means they’re going to need a Cinderella-esque run through the SEC Tournament to even make it into March Madness.

So, what exactly went wrong on Saturday? Much of the same things that have plagued this team all year long. Let’s go behind the box score to look at Arkansas’ loss to the Gamecocks.

Behind the box: Arkansas’ luck holds as ref show overshadows

Tramon Mark and Wade Taylor did something no other two players have combined to do this year. And it was overshadowed by officiating.

Doug Shows is not a popular name in the state of Arkansas. And even after his officiating crew provided a big reason for the Razorbacks’ win Wednesday, no one who cheers for the Hogs will see it that way.

The truth is Arkansas needed the officials – and a lot more – to celebrate after the game against Texas A&M. Tramon Mark’s buzzer-beating fadeaway provided the game-winner in a 77-76 victory.

From tip to jubilation lasted about 2 hours, 40 minutes. Fifty foul calls will do that. Not that they were all in Arkansas’ favor. The ejection of guard Devo Davis in the second half was understandable, but a bit iffy.

Still, little of it matters except that ‘W.’ Let’s take a closer look at how it happened as we go Behind the Box.