By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE — It’s hard to believe what has happened in 10 days, especially considering the embarrassment Arkansas absorbed on Jan. 23.
That was the day Kentucky trounced the Razorbacks in Rupp Arena, handing Arkansas the school’s worst Southeastern Conference loss. It angered supporters, frustrated the Razorbacks and made many wonder just how bad things would get as Arkansas fell to 8-11 and 1-3 in league games.
But four wins over a 10-day span has flipped Arkansas’ fortunes, putting the Razorbacks in a position that seemed unimaginable: First place in the SEC’s Western Division.
“For what was said and written about those young men, really all season long, and after that game in Lexington nobody gave them a chance to be where they are right now,” Arkansas coach John Pelphrey said. “So it wasn’t because they were so great or so talented or played so well, it’s just happened. But they deserve the credit for that.”
Arkansas (12-11, 5-3), which was plagued by suspensions, injuries and bad news off-the-court through nonconference play, has been one of the surprises in the SEC as it reaches the halfway point of league play. The Razorbacks, with their roster intact and flourishing thanks largely to Courtney Fortson’s return, have pieced together a four-game win streak to climb atop the division.
The latest victory was the 82-79 overtime win against Auburn in Bud Walton Arena on Saturday.
In it, the Razorbacks followed a path that has been similar throughout the streak. Arkansas struggled in the first half and trailed at the break, but made clutch plays down the stretch.
And somehow, some way, according to Pelphrey, the wins are starting to pile up for his team although it has been exhausted by its schedule.
“I am proud of the way the guys conducted themselves,” Pelphrey said. “I’m proud of their effort. I can sit here and tell you it’s not great X’s and O’s that’s winning these basketball games. It’s not because of the wonderful talent that we have. We aspire to have that at some point in time. To this point in time, we’ve been fortunate but we have shown toughness and heart.”
Arkansas’ four-game win streak in SEC play is its first since 2008, Pelphrey’s first season.
The Razorbacks will have a chance to win five straight league games for the first time since 2006 when they play LSU on Wednesday night.
“It’s a lot more fun to win,” guard Rotnei Clarke said before the Auburn game. “We were talking about that (Wednesday) night as a team. Everybody is happy when you win. It’s not about anything else but winning. It’s big for us.”
Pelphrey hopes his team understands the importance of staying even-keeled after enjoying the stretch of wins, though. How Arkansas handles the success is obviously one of his concerns now.
He saw what happened to his team last year, when a 12-1 start in nonconference play quickly crumbled and turned into the worst SEC performance in school history. The Razorbacks haven’t been dominating opponents during its four-game win streak the past 10 days, either.
So watching his team enjoy success for a change has been rewarding, but he said “this is work” and added that there’s “nothing fun” about it.
“Hopefully a lesson that everybody learns with basketball and life is you get up and go to work the next day no matter what happened the day before,” Pelphrey said. “Understand that if it’s bad, the way to make something good happen is to go and have a great attitude and work.
“If something good happened to you … you better stay humble and hungry and anything else besides that is just fool’s gold.”
The second half of SEC play includes two games against LSU, which fell to 0-9 with a loss to Kentucky. Arkansas also has road trips at Auburn, Alabama and Tennessee. And home games against Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Ole Miss.
Three of Arkansas’ remaining opponents — Vanderbilt, Tennessee and Ole Miss — are better than .500 in SEC play. South Carolina is 4-4.
So the Razorbacks know they’ve got a chance to close strong and win a division championship, which sounded like an impossibility two weeks ago after the lopsided loss at Kentucky.
But Fortson said Arkansas also realizes there is a fine line between winning and losing. So the Razorbacks still have a long way to go.
“It’s a good feeling,” Fortson said of the wins. “But we’ve still got to stay humble and hungry. I think that will continue to drive us to success.”
