Arkansas made a strong case to host regional, early season letdowns proved too much to overcome
From what started out as one of the more disappointing seasons under Dave Van Horn, Arkansas turned things around rather quickly.
Mired in a slump with a 20-13 overall record and losses to Arkansas State, Stetson, UT-Arlington and Missouri State, the first month of the season frustrated everyone affiliated with the program.
Then the season flipped, and Arkansas began playing like the team many expected in February. Winners in 19 of their previous 27 games, Arkansas is as hot as any team in the country.
Van Horn’s team might have deserved to host a regional with how they’ve played recently. A No. 14 ranking in strength of schedule, No. 21 in RPI, 21 victories over Quad-1 competition and a 7-3 record in SEC series made for a good case.
“I think we helped ourselves the last couple of weeks,” Van Horn said Sunday. “I don’t think it’s about what we’ve done the last couple of weeks, because I think it’s about the whole year.
“Like I’ve said, we’ve won seven series out of 10 in the SEC, won three games here, played a lot of Quad 1 teams and we won a lot of games. Yeah, I hope we get to play at home.”
Unfortunately, Arkansas has to hit the road by travelling to nearby Lawrence, Kan., in a field that consists of Kansas, Missouri State, and Northeastern.
The Jayhawks, built around a roster full of former JUCO players, won the program’s first Big 12 regular-season and conference tournament titles. That earned them the No. 15 overall seed with the winner of its regional set to face the winner out of the Georgia Tech regional.
Arkansas coaches and players alike probably thought they had done enough to at least host. That is especially true considering how they closed the season.
However, “what have you done for me lately” doesn’t matter nearly as much as being consistently good all year after all.
The committee stood firm by rewarding a full season of consistency rather than Arkansas’ late push, which is why the early losses became harder to outrun despite the Razorbacks’ SEC résumé.
“It’s easy, just go by the RPI, and let’s move on to the next day. I guess,” Van Horn said Monday afternoon. “It’s frustrating, but at the same time, you know, a month ago, we were fighting to get into regional.
“I guess someone had said that we were too far back when we started the tournament. I don’t believe that.”
In similar fashion to the SEC basketball tournament in Nashville where it appeared Arkansas had done enough to secure a three seed, Van Horn used the week in Hoover to jockey into a better position.
“It makes you wonder about the tournament a little bit. What’s it all about,” Van Horn said. “Maybe we rethink it in the future on how we handle it and how we pitch it, how we play it.”
In a day where it takes teams a few games to gel, the Razorbacks still found a way to the postseason. Their growth all season is a testament to Van Horn’s ability to motivate and mold talented teams together in pursuit of a goal.
Outside of Mississippi State and LSU, there are far better atmospheres in the postseason such as Baum-Walker Stadium. While the nation misses out on a special college baseball setting, the Razorbacks are fully equipped to handle business on the road much like they did in 2009, 2012, and 2015.