Arkansas’ raucous home upset of No. 7 Duke provided one of the best scenes and biggest wins of November

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A wounded Arkansas team coming off three losses in four games, missing arguably its best player, had something perfectly timed on the schedule.

Its best opportunity of this young season to turn it all around. 

And over the course of a little more than two hours, Bud Walton Arena was witness to how powerful, how enrapturing college basketball can be.

Against No. 7 Duke on Wednesday night, the 4-3 Razorbacks held on and pulled off one of their most memorable home wins ever, doing so in front of a record-setting crowd. The largest assembly in this basketball barn’s history — 20,344 in a building with an official capacity of 19,200 — almost never sat down over the course of a game that saw Arkansas outwork, outrun and outplay Duke en route to an 80-75 win. 

The Hogs, whose most recent home game was a stunning six-point loss 12 days ago to UNCG, looked like a team reborn when faced up against the hyped Blue Devils. Here they were, the rare non-ACC power-conference team to play UNC and Duke in back-to-back games. 

The passing, the connectivity, the way this team was emboldened by its crowd. It was riveting. They did it without junior guard Tramon Mark, the Razorbacks’ leading scorer who was stretchered off the floor at the end of Arkansas’ game against North Carolina on Friday. It was a lower back injury, but Mark’s also dealing with groin and hip tenderness. Without him available, asking Arkansas to overcome Duke, even at home, felt like a steep ask after so much inconsistency. 

But Mark’s a special player with a leadership quality that can impact every player in the locker room. On Monday, he showed up for practice and put on his practice gear, knowing full well that he could not physically participate. He asked questions and did everything as if he was going to play in the game. 

“I’ve never seen a player do something like that,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman told CBS Sports. 

On Wednesday morning, Mark did the same thing at the team’s morning shootaround. A game that needed no extra motivation was provided an emotional push by Mark. Once the ball tipped, the Hogs uncorked not any pent-up frustration from losing, but elevated confidence and competence after almost 72 hours of diligent practice. 

This was Duke. This had to go their way. Or else. 

“Anytime you play Duke it’s a big game for your fanbase, for your players, for your coaching staff,” Musselman said from the locker room afterward. “They’re talented and well coached, but if you don’t win that game – it was a must-win for us, it really was. … You don’t want to be staring at 4-4 eight games into a season. You worry about a team’s confidence if you don’t win that game.” 

It wasn’t going to happen on Wednesday night, even with Duke putting a late scare into Arkansas, which gave away a double-digit lead in the closing minutes. With 2:09 left, hundreds of students began to creep closer to the court. Duke put on a full-court press to erase a double-digit deficit, but it was too little too late. Despite half-hearted warnings before the final horn and after, hundreds of Arkansas students flooded the floor and gave us one of the best scenes through three-plus weeks of the 2023-24 season. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, please stay off the court,” the PA announcer dryly implored a drunken crowd of students who were in the midst of a college memory they’ll never forget. 

This was the fifth all-time meeting between the two. Arkansas now holds a 3-2 edge. An incredible night in one of the best venues in college basketball also marked the 100th win of Musselman’s career at Arkansas. The Hogs beating Duke registers as an upset, but the bigger one was Musselman not taking off his shirt in celebration afterward. He confirmed to me later: Never before had he notched such a big win and managed to keep his shirt on. 

The setting was as good as you’ll find in November. More than 1,200 students camped out the night before to watch their team earn its first top-10 home win against a nonconference team since Nov. 30, 2012, against Syracuse.

“Just an insane environment,” Musselman said.

“I don’t think you see many environments like this,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said.

And it was on a night where an Arkansas legend was in the building. No, not Bobby Petrino. Though the newly rehired offensive coordinator was serenaded multiple times with “WE! WANT! BOB-BY!” chants from the students, a bona fide Razorback icon sat eight rows up on the aisle seat behind Arkansas’ bench. Amid a sea of white shirts on this white-out night, there was 81-year-old Nolan Richardson, dressed in all black, watching the program he brought to its apex do what he’d done twice before: send a loaded Duke team home with a loss.

It was Richardson’s first regular season Arkansas game since 2019. Everything coalesced here. Arkansas has mattered again nationally for a few years because of Musselman’s ability to revive a sleeping giant. Beating Duke, even while unranked, helps maintain Arkansas’ status as a Program That Matters. 

But I have to go back to what it felt like in this building. There are places capable of reverberating in your mind for days, months, years after you leave certain games behind, and this one seems destined to be just that. 

“I thought at the eight-minute mark we were going to win the game,” Musselman told me. “But I thought at halftime our team, there was a belief walking out of halftime.” 

Bud Walton Arena hit news levels of frenzy as the second half went on and Arkansas’ lead ballooned. There was a pop at 12:18, when Khalif Battle hit a 3-pointer with 12:18 to make it 51-43, Hogs. 

It got noisier after a timeout when Battle hit a shorty off the glass to give the Razorbacks their first double-digit lead of the night, 55-45, with 11:09 to go. When Battle’s 3-pointer got Arkansas to a 63-49 lead, Bud Walton Arena got so loud, even the Arkansas coaching staff afterward told me they’d never heard this celebrated, classic basketball cathedral ever get that raucous. 

The mojo in Bud Walton never let up. Duke was bizarrely bad near the rim, missing more than 15 close-range shots. Some of it was Arkansas’ pressure, some of it must have been the building. 

“They play a different kind of defense where you can muck it up a bit,” Scheyer said, giving full credit to Arkansas’ attack and scheme.

This marked Scheyer’s first time in an SEC arena — as a player or a coach. It was also Duke’s first trip to an SEC arena in 11,617 days (Feb. 8, 1992, a 77-67 win over LSU). Over two-plus hours, the Blue Devils took a tour through Hog Hell that was an assault to the senses. The Blue Devils sit at 5-2, with a 1-2 record against high-major opponents. But Duke will have many chances at redemption. 

Wednesday night was about Arkansas. This win will carry the fan base through Christmas. It’s the kind of victory that has the potential to redirect the course of Arkansas’ season. The Razorbacks were ranked No. 14 two weeks ago, but three losses in four games plunged them out of any consideration in this week’s AP Top 25.

“There was a lot of pressure on tonight’s game.” Musselman said. “A lot.”

Musselman said there were few times he ever had a team without its leading scorer show up better than in this game. Arkansas’ bench outscored a healthy Blue Devils team dotted with five-stars 36-9, a change aided by Musselman throwing a scouting report twist and putting in two different starters (plus El Ellis subbing in for Mark) from who started vs. North Carolina five days earlier. 

Arkansas had 10 blocks on Duke — which is almost unheard of.

“They’re old. They played like it,” Scheyer said.

For Trevon Brazile, a 19-point, 11-rebound night that included a personal-best four 3-pointers. Khalif Battle led Arkansas with 21 points, along with five rebounds and five assists. Brazile missed most of last season with a torn ACL. His performance is a huge sign of progress for him and for the Hogs.

The basketball schedule allows for major pivots in a short amount of time. Arkansas entered the season with visions of competing to win an SEC title. Then it got taken out at home by a SoCo school (UNCG) and barely escaped a bad Stanford team at the Battle 4 Atlantis before losing to Memphis and North Carolina.

Now it may have reset its trajectory. That will need to be proven over the next month-plus. Even if that doesn’t happen, this was one of the best moments of the first month of the season and will live on in northwest Arkansas for a long time as a classic.