By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — The only time the champion of the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference failed to make the NCAA Tournament, Arkansas was the saboteur. This year, the Razorbacks could be a victim.
Although the Razorbacks are barely into the second half of conference play and every one of their games is an adventure, they are in first place. Mississippi State completed a sweep of Ole Miss on Thursday night and is a game behind with seven to play. Ole Miss, with the best RPI in the division, is two games back on the loss side.
Not bound by the coaches’ one-game-at-a-time mantra, Arkansas is in position to win the division.
Some pluses for the Razorbacks:
—Only South Carolina and Georgia from the Eastern Division have lost to any team from the Western Division and Arkansas has South Carolina in Fayetteville. Mississippi State’s game with South Carolina is in Columbia. Ole Miss has completed a sweep of South Carolina and Georgia.
—Mississippi State is the only one of the leaders yet to play the SEC’s best, Kentucky, albeit in Starkville. The game Tuesday night will be the Bulldogs’ third in five days.
—Ole Miss, which has lost three of its last four, must win a home game against Vanderbilt or Florida or win on the road vs. Arkansas or Alabama just to get to 8-8.
At this point, 9-7 looks good enough to win at least a share of the division title. The snow can make one stir-crazy, but suppose Arkansas completes a sweep of LSU and protects home court against the Gamecocks. In that case, the Razorbacks would be 8-7 at the worst with Ole Miss in town for the season finale.
A division title will not be enough to get Arkansas into the NCAA Tournament, but mentioning the Razorbacks and the tournament in the same sentence is a sign of remarkable progress since the disaster at Kentucky. The Razorbacks’ have opportunities to record so-called quality wins, particularly against Vanderbilt on Feb. 27.
Selection committee members will consider the fact that Arkansas is a different team with Courtney Fortson, but they cannot ignore the 7-7 start that included losses to Morgan State and East Tennessee State.
With Fortson, Arkansas would have won those two and maybe another one or two. “I try to feed off him as much as I can,” freshman Marshawn Powell said after the overtime victory over Auburn.
So do his teammates, in a variety of ways. When coach John Pelphrey recently mentioned toughness and heart, Fortson came immediately to mind.
From the time that Arkansas joined the SEC in 1992 until the 2007 season, the NCAA field included the Western Division champion and-or co-champions. Arkansas was a No. 1 seed in 1994; Auburn in 1999. Otherwise, the seeds were usually two to five. The past two years, the division champion has been a No. 8 seed and lost in the second round.
In ‘07, Ole Miss and Mississippi State tied for first at 8-8 and Arkansas was third at 7-9. The Rebels lost in the first round of the league tournament and Arkansas took out the Bulldogs 81-72 in the semifinals. Given that, the NCAA invited Arkansas as a No. 12 seed and the Mississippi schools played in the NIT.
The situation could be similar this year in the SEC Tournament in Nashville with an NCAA bid to the Western Division team that hangs around the longest.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
