The dust has settled, and with Purdue’s defeat of Texas on Sunday night, the Sweet 16 field has been set. One name that is still alive in the hunt for a National Championship is the Arkansas Razorbacks.
On Monday, ESPN’s Myron Medcalf re-seeded the remaining 16 teams in the field. Where does Arkansas fit in the picture? In what has become the norm, the Razorbacks are not being highly thought of, as they check it at No. 13 of 16 teams.
Here is Medcalf’s synopsis of Arkansas’ round of 32 win over New Mexico State on Saturday:
Arkansas and New Mexico State played Saturday’s ugliest game. JD Notae (18 points) led a Razorbacks team that made just 28% of its field goal attempts. Its two advantages? A 12-0 edge in transition and a 22-for-25 mark from the free-throw line. Per ESPN Stats & Info data, Arkansas’ 53 points were the lowest tally ever for an SEC team that won an NCAA tournament game. Arkansas is now 17-3 in its past 20 games, though.
Ahead of Thursday’s matchup with No. 1 seed Gonzaga in San Francisco, Calif., Medcalf says that Arkansas should hope that the Bulldogs do not play up to their ceiling:
It is no small feat to hold the WAC’s top offensive team — or any Division I team, really — to 48 points. It is difficult, however, to go on a run in the NCAA tournament with limited 3-point shooting (30.5% this season). But most of Arkansas’ opponents have failed to play to their potential during the Razorbacks’ current rally. Maybe that’s their ticket: counting on being the superior team in a grind-it-out Sweet 16 matchup
Following No. 10 seed Miami’s defeat of No. 2 Auburn on Sunday, Arkansas remains the only team from the Southeastern Conference to still have a shot at a National Championship. That run will be put on the line Thursday vs. No. 1 seed Gonzaga.
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