We look at Tuesday's big one in Bud Walton. If Arkansas wants to win the SEC basketball title, this is a must-win game
Here we go. This is a game Arkansas and Vanderbilt fans circled on the calendar once it became apparent these two teams were going to be good in the 2025-2026 college basketball season. When Arkansas beat Texas Tech and Vanderbilt won its first dozen games of the season, the January 20 date grew in importance for everyone involved. Now that date is here, and it's go-time for the Hogs and Commodores.
We can start with the obvious: Both teams are now chasing the Florida Gators in the SEC standings, with Alabama right there in the mix and Texas A&M being pesky under coach Bucky McMillan. Arkansas and Vanderbilt cannot afford to lose ground at this point. They need to stay close to Florida and give the Gators a chance to cool off and fall back to the pack (though that is hardly guaranteed).
The importance of this game runs so much deeper than keeping pace with Florida, however. For Vanderbilt, this game matters a lot because the Commodores are beginning to be exposed by SEC opponents. VU could not score against Texas and it could not defend against Florida this past weekend at home. The Commodores have lost two straight games and will therefore be a wounded opponent which will try to stop the bleeding.
This flows into the importance of Tuesday's game for Arkansas and John Calipari. This has quickly become a theme of UA's season: not coming out ready to play against desperate opponents in urgent need of a win.
Arkansas got crushed by an Auburn team which had lost its previous two games. UA got punched in the mouth by a Georgia team which had just endured a brutal home-court loss to Ole Miss. Now Arkansas is once again playing an opponent which has lost two straight games and will therefore play with a lot of urgency. Calipari has to get through to his team: You need to be ready to take the opponent's best punch right off the bat. You cannot wait a whole half or 30 minutes to start playing.
Arkansas is very talented but clearly not mature enough to handle life as a big-boy basketball team. The Hogs need to quickly learn how to become the team which shuts down desperate opponents and matches both their energy and focus from opening tip to final horn. That is the true test offered in this game.
The one key difference -- and benefit -- for UA is that unlike the Auburn and Georgia ambushes, this game is at home. Arkansas has defended Bud Walton Arena extremely well this season. Home cooking should enable this team to fly out of the gate, but it can't and won't guarantee a strong performance. The young men on the court have to deliver against a Vanderbilt team which knows how to score. In a game which could recall Nolan Richardson versus Rick Pitino and Kentucky from the 1990s, the score of this game should at least be in the mid-80s if not higher. Arkansas has to keep the foot on the gas and find a way to finish on a night when losing is simply not acceptable.