Hogs Season Comes To An End. Arkansas Falls To Baylor 81-72

It was a helluva run for the Arkansas Razorbacks in the second half of their 2020-21 season, but it came to an end in the NCAA tournament Elite Eight on Monday as the No. 3 seed Hogs fell to No. 1 seed Baylor, 81-72, in the South Region finals inside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, sending Arkansas home after the Hogs missed on the program’s first Final Four in 26 years and its 7th in program history.

The 10th-ranked Hogs (25-7) defeated Colgate, 21st-ranked Texas Tech, and Oral Roberts in the first three rounds of the South Region of the NCAA tournament, and Monday’s regional finals loss against 3rd-ranked Baylor means the Hogs finished their season having won 16 of their last 19 games while advancing to the program’s first Elite Eight in 26 years (’94-95). That ’94-95 season was also the last Arkansas team to enter the NCAAT ranked in the Associated Press Top 10 (at No. 6) prior to the current Hogs doing the same (at No. 10), and it was the last time the Hogs made it to the Final Four.

As the No. 1 seed in the South Region, Baylor (26-2) had beaten 16-seed Hartford, 9-seed Wisconsin, and 5-seed Villanova all by double-digit margins while advancing to the Elite Eight, and with their Monday win over Arkansas the Bears advance to the Final Four next weekend when they’ll take on the Houston Cougars (28-3), who as a No. 2 seed won the Midwest Region finals against No. 12 seed Oregon State, 67-61, on Monday. Baylor improved to 10-2 in games played against ranked teams in ’20-21, which now includes a 6-2 record against Top 10-ranked teams.

Arkansas dropped to 0-10 all-time against NCAAT No. 1 seeds, and it fell to 3-4 in games against ranked opponents in ’20-21, which includes a final 2-1 record against Top 10-ranked teams. The Razorbacks slipped to 45-33 all-time in NCAAT games, which includes a 4-2 record as a 3-seed in the NCAAT (’91-92 Hogs were 1-1). Arkansas finished the season 9-6 in away games on the season (includes a 4-2 record in neutral-site games).

In his second campaign as Head Hog, Eric Musselman is now 3-1 in NCAAT games at Arkansas, he’s 9-2 coaching a ranked Arkansas team, and he’s 45-19 overall at Arkansas. In his sixth season as a college head coach, Musselman has reached the Sweet 16 (at Nevada in ’17-18) and the Elite Eight (at Arkansas in ’20-21). His overall record in the NCAAT is 5-4.

Musselman started Moody, Davis, Williams, Smith, and Tate for the third consecutive game.

Baylor’s savvy, skill, and collective quickness on both sides of the ball allowed the Bears to jump all over the Hogs early as they made 15 of their first 21 shot attempts while along the way building leads of 15-2, 29-11, and 33-16 before Arkansas began chipping away. The Hogs closed the half outscoring the Bears 27-17 to pull within 46-38 at the break.

Notae led the Hogs with 12 first-half points while Tate had 9 with 4 turnovers. Williams chipped in 6 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 drawn charge in the first 20 minutes, while Smith had 6 points, 3 assists, 2 steals, but only 1 rebound.

Arkansas started slow but picked up the pace with Notae and Sills playing off the bench as the Hogs shot 15-of-24 from the field (62.5%), including 3-of-4 from 3 (75%), but they were only 5-of-10 from the free throw line. Baylor made 18-of-32 from the field (56.3%), including 4-of-7 from 3 (57.1%), and 6-of-7 from the foul line (85.7%).

The Bears won the first-half turnover battle (10-6) and points-off-turnovers (14-6). Each team had 13 rebounds, each scored 5 second-chance-points, and each scored 20 points in the paint. Arkansas had a 7-6 advantage in fastbreak points.