ALLEN-ARKANSAS BASKETBALL

Though most are loathe to admit it, when a losing streak mounts to
four, sufficient evidence amasses  contrasting “good” losses from “bad” losses.

So strictly by that criteria count Arkansas’ 80-73 loss last Wednesday at
16th-ranked Tennessee a “good loss.”

Or at least not a horrific loss like the two games preceding it.

The Razorbacks were non-factors last week in their 65-54 and 89-72 losses at LSU and
at Walton Arena against Vanderbilt.

They never led either game. The Hogs trailed then SEC winless LSU by as much as 22.
And Arkansas had annihilated LSU, 87-52 on Feb. 10 at Walton Arena.

SEC East runnerup Vanderbilt, now ranked 13th nationally, led by as much as 27
before Vandy coach Kevin Stallings called off his best Commodores.

Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl didn’t have that luxury at his  Volunteers’
Boling-Thompson Arena. On Senior Night in Knoxville, Pearl couldn’t one by one
remove his three starting seniors for farewell ovations.

Arkansas made it too close. The Hogs had three first-half leads and a couple of
times arose from the near dead in the second half, preventing the Vols from curtain
calls.
“I felt start to finish,” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said, “we hung in and battled
and competed.”

In fact it was Pearl, not Pelphrey resorting to histrionics to goad a team out of an
emotional funk.

The Vols’ coach resembles Jerry Lewis but he’s no joke. Even if he has attended a
game  bare chested in Tennessee orange body paint as a fan supporting Pat Summitt’s
Lady Vols.

So when his Vols seemed flat  as he feared they would from their enormous win last
Saturday over SEC East/Overall champion  Kentucky,  Pearl got himself a technical
foul with a Tennessee tantrum.
 
His team, the fans, and even the officials, it seemed, took seriously his ranting,
raving.

“Nothing was going our way after the technical foul,” Pelphrey said.  “They came at
us, the crowd got loud, they made some plays, some calls ... everything just went
Tennessee’s way.”

The Hogs bent but didn’t break.

“Our guys planted their feet a little bit,” Pelphrey said,  “and withstood all that
and started fighting back. We got through a storm.”

Almost.

“We just didn’t score enough baskets tonight,” Pelphrey said, “and that’s a tribute
to Tennessee.”

The long-limbed Vols not only play good defense but opportunistic defense. So though
Arkansas committed 15 turnovers to Tennessee’s 17, the Vols outscored Arkansas, 22-6
on fast breaks.

“Tennessee is very opportunistic on the break,” Pelphrey said.  “They can score a
large amount of points on a small mount of turnovers.”

Weathering the storm all the way to triumph in Tennessee would have meant a lot the
Razorbacks, 14-16, 7-8 in the SEC West, but either way it meant nothing to Arkansas’
SEC Tournament future.

All that for contesting SEC West runnerups Arkansas and Ole Miss  is wrapped up in
Saturday’s 3 p.m. Arkansas-Ole Miss regular-season closing game at Walton.

The SEC East champion and runnerup (Kentucky and Vanderbilt) and SEC West champion
Mississippi State and the West runnerup net first-round byes when the SEC Tournament
commences Thursday night in Nashville, Tenn.

Ole Miss, took a 7-7 SEC West record into its Thursday Senior Night game hosting LSU
in Oxford.

Regardless of the Ole Miss-LSU outcome, the Hogs, an 80-73 winner over Ole Miss,
Jan. 31 in Oxford, would get the bye if they win.

Ole Miss clinches second if it wins on Arkansas’ Senior Day and farewell home game
for retiring longtime Arkansas broadcaster Mike Nail.

“There will be a lot of emotion in the game,” Pelphrey said post Tennessee.
“Hopefully we can play as hard and just play a little bit better and make a few more
shots and get a win against a very good Mississippi basketball team fighting for the
NCAA Tournament. They have been nationally ranked this year and we were very
fortunate to beat them down there.”