Arkansas basketball wins just its second SEC Tournament championship, its first in 26 long years. Take a bow, Hogs!
We can sit here and say that the NCAA Tournament -- making the Final Four -- is what really matters for Arkansas basketball. Narrowly, that's true. Arkansas hasn't been to the Final Four since 1995 in Seattle. A drought of over 30 years cries out for resolution and closure. Arkansas made the Elite Eight multiple times under Eric Musselman but couldn't take the final step on the road to the Big Show. In the big picture, that's the main goal, not only for the program itself, but also for a Hall of Fame coach, John Calipari, who desperately wants to get back to the Final Four for the first time since 2015.
Yet, when a basketball school with a proud pedigree and a rich history has gone 26 years without a conference tournament championship, winning that trophy -- even if it's not the Really Big Goal -- certainly matters a lot. Arkansas, for just the second time in school history and the first time since the year 2000, is the SEC Basketball Tournament champion. The Hogs achieved the goal with an 86-75 win over Vanderbilt on Sunday in Nashville.
Was Arkansas fortunate it didn't have to play Florida in this SEC final, much as it didn't have to play Alabama in the Saturday semifinals? Sure ... but a lot of teams, when given good luck, don't cash in those chips and walk away from the table as a big winner. A lot of teams squander good fortune when they get it. Arkansas didn't travel that road in Music City. The Razorbacks pulled away from a very talented and capable Vanderbilt team down the stretch, closing Sunday's title bout with a 12-3 run after leading 74-72.
Darius Acuff, the SEC Player of the Year, was once again the best player on the court for Arkansas. He not only led all scorers with 30 points in a game where no one else even scored 20; Acuff also hit 5 of 8 3-pointers, handed out 11 assists, and logged 37 minutes. Acuff was an iron man for Arkansas this weekend, getting barely any rest but still carrying this team in two of three games, the Oklahoma quarterfinal and this SEC final.
Arkansas, with help from Trevon Brazile (4 of 5), DJ Wagner (3 of 3), and Billy Richmond (2 of 4), hit 15 of 24 3-pointers, which was the difference in the game. No team is going to lose when shooting that well from long distance. Richmond finished 8 of 13 from the field, Brazile 6 of 9, as Arkansas delivered one more very efficient offensive performance in the now-concluded SEC season.
A first tournament title in 26 years belongs in Fayetteville now.