This was a total letdown spot for the Hogs, and they fell into the trap. John Calipari has to earn his money now.
If Arkansas and Auburn played a best-of-seven series, Arkansas would win. There's zero question Arkansas is the better team with the higher ceiling. The Razorbacks will be a higher NCAA Tournament seed than Auburn. They have played elite teams better than Auburn has so far this season. However, we know that college basketball is not a best-of-seven sport. It's about 40 minutes on one day in one situation. John Calipari knew this was a tricky spot for his Razorbacks on Saturday. Arkansas was 2-0 in the SEC, Auburn 0-2, but Auburn was favored by the sportsbooks for a reason.
Auburn was a wounded dog, at home, in full-on desperation mode. Arkansas was winning games and had reason to be fat and happy ... and that's the problem.
Auburn was the far hungrier and more desperate team. Auburn played this game as though its season was on the line. Arkansas played as though this game didn't really matter. It's not about the stats; the 95-73 final score tells more than enough of the story. You don't have to dig deep into the box score on this one. Not every game requires close evaluation of numbers.
This game was about mindset, toughness and heart ... and the daily approach to a season and its goals.
If Arkansas wants to win the SEC championship -- which is still very possible -- the Hogs have to be desperate in every game they play, especially on the road. Arkansas can't treat games as though they don't really matter, or as though "we can afford the occasional loss."
Sure, the SEC champion is not going to go unbeaten in league play. Vanderbilt is good but won't steamroll the league. Vanderbilt is not 1996 Kentucky or 2014 Florida. A few losses probably won't crush Arkansas' hopes. A team which loses three games in the league is still in very good position to win the championship in March. The point, though, is not about the losses themselves but the way they happen.
Arkansas could have played a very strong and vigorous game against Auburn and still lost. Had that happened, the focus would have been more on the statistics and on specific areas where the Hogs needed to improve. Because this was a blowout, however, the focus is and should be less on specific aspects of performance and more on the mentality of a team which simply didn't care as much as its opponent did.
John Calipari has to make absolutely sure his team never treats another SEC game as casually as it treated this one. Auburn was favored in Vegas for a reason: Arkansas wasn't going to take this game as seriously as Auburn.
Calipari has to make sure the Hogs never lose because of a "seriousness deficit" ever again.