Duke had the number 1 recruiting class in the country last year, while Arkansas was #2.
Duke is 13-5 and Arkansas is 12-5 this season.
Duke has a 24 point loss to an unranked NC State, and a double digit loss to an unranked Wake Forest, and an 8 point loss to an unranked Clemson.
Arkansas has a 15 point home loss to #5 ranked Bama, and a double digit loss to ranked Auburn, and an awful double digit loss to unranked Vandy, both on the road.
Now the kicker, Duke has all of their great recruiting class, including transfers, playing. Arkansas has lost their number 1 HS recruit and their #1 transfer recruit. Duke also lost their great coach, so maybe that evens out the losses? Either way, seasons like this happen occasionally.
Duke has a winning record in conference play and is undefeated at home and beat sean miller’s top 15 ranked Xavier on the road. They are in far better shape to make the tournament and have confidence to compete against anyone this year.
Yes relying on freshmen comes with some bumps in the road. But Arkansas has all the bad with none of the good so far. This years team is no comparison to Duke or to the last two Razorback teams. There’s no silver lining here. We need to figure out how to win the next game.
St. John’s is a better comparison for us this year. Started the year strong in a weak non conference schedule. Started conference play horribly. Has enough talent to beat #6 UConn on the road today.
But they have experienced players and haven’t lost anyone to injury.
We can turn it around this year but there isn’t exactly a blueprint for us to follow. It will be something special if we turn around and have a post season life.
I haven’t let go of the rope, simply because college basketball is wacky this year…
You mention St. John’s beating UConn in Storrs. That is shocking, especially considering UConn blew out Bama, and St. John’s has looked terrible since Big East play started (much like us).
You mention Duke…also terrible since league play started, and the ACC is waaaay down this year. Clemson, yes Clemson, is leading the ACC, and they have multiple Quad 4 losses.
How does Kentucky lose at home to an awful South Carolina (who beat Clemson) and then beat a terrific Tennessee team on the road?
UNC isn’t ranked, Creighton goes from looking like a Final 4 team in Maui to being lost in the woods in the month of December (they lost their best player, much like us).
Arizona has a couple of head-scratching losses. Texas gets blown out at home by K-State, and gives up 116 points.
So many examples, not to mention Chris Beard is gonna be unemployed for the foreseeable future.
Just wacky, but if past performance is an indicator of future results, I’ve gotta believe Muss gets this turned around.
Ok this was the most exaggerated and wrong knee jerk reaction ever. Folks we got too down on AB from the Vandy game. That game was the bad part of relying on freshman. But Anthony Black is still the best player on our team and a potential lottery pick. Let’s not forget he looked like the best player on the team even when we had nsj and Brazil as 1-a and 1-b other best options playing alongside him. And he was the highlight of our season doing it on his own in Maui. This years team has a steeper hill to climb compared to the past two years but we have at least one very dangerous freshman weapon. If we get one or two more going watch out. Im not giving up on em yet. I think maybe it’s not such a bad thing at all that the rest of the whole sec is going to be coming at AB hard about the cry baby antics. Bring it on let’s see what happens.
It’s about what I thought it would be when we lost TB and NSJ. I anticipated before the season started there would be some growing pains in early conference play even if we had them.
The biggest difference is we aren’t playing good D right now and turning the ball over too much. I hope Coach Muss can turn it around!