By Morgan Nunley

Online Editor

While the Arkansas football season didn’t go according to plan, the basketball season has followed the script almost perfectly, with the key word there being almost. The Razorback men’s basketball team has shown flashes of dominance and the women’s basketball team has just been outright dominant.

The men’s team has started the season 6-4, while the women’s team had looked impressive with their 8-3 start. Looking at the opponents for both teams and how the players on the teams have fared so far could provide some insight into how the Hogs will play down the SEC stretch of the season.

Starting with the men’s team, senior guard Khalif Battle leads the team in scoring, averaging 16.4 points per game. Sophomore forward Trevon Brazile leads the team in rebounds at 7.1 per game, and is tied for the team lead with senior forward Chandler Lawson in blocks at 1.7 per game. The team’s steals leader is freshman guard Layden Blocker, while senior guard Davonte Davis leads the team in assists at 2.6 per contest. 

Other notable contributors on the team thus far include junior guard Tremon Mark, averaging 16.0 points per game, and senior guard El Ellis, who is giving the team good production with 7.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists. 

The team hasn’t faced a slate of amazing teams yet this season, but the team has faced some tougher competition than previously thought coming into the season. 

The opening three games of the season were against Alcorn State, Gardner-Webb, and Old Dominion. The team dominated these matchups with the closest game coming against ODU in an 86-77 Arkansas victory, and the biggest blowout coming against Alcorn State when the Hogs routed the Braves 93-59, bringing their record after three games to 3-0.

The team faced a tougher slate the next four games when they played UNC Greensboro, Memphis, Stanford, and UNC.

The Razorbacks lost their first game of the year to UNC Greensboro on Nov. 17 by a score of 78-72. UNC Greensboro has looked rather impressive throughout the early portion of the season, with their only loss coming by four points to Vanderbilt, and their record being 7-1, as of Dec. 8. The Hogs can at least feel better about that loss looking back now as the team that beat them has shown to be at the very least a good team. 

The Hogs followed up the tough loss with a victory over Stanford in what was an impressive game from Mark, who put up his, at the time, season high in points with 25, and from Brazile who added an impressive 14 points and 17 rebounds. 

The next two games were heartbreakers for the Hogs, or at least as much as they can be at this point in the season. The Razorbacks played the Memphis Tigers on Nov. 23 and lost to the Tigers 79-84 in the Bahamas at the Imperial Arena. The Tigers moved to an impressive 5-0 after this win, and downed the Hogs to 4-2, with the loss. 

The Hogs then played the then #14 ranked UNC, and the Razorbacks got soundly defeated in a 72-87 loss to the Tar Heels. Looking back at both of these games, though, the Hogs showed some glimpses of what the team could be; the Hogs just couldn’t match up on these particular nights with Memphis or UNC. The teams are a combined 14-3 on the season thus far, and first in their respective conferences, which again gives the Hogs and their fans something to hang their hat on.

The next game was the game of the year up to this point for the Hogs, facing off against #7 ranked Duke in Bud Walton Arena. The Razorbacks showed up to play though, as Brazile put up 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Battle came off the bench and scored 21, with 5 rebounds and 5 assists, to propel the Razorbacks to a stunning 80-75 victory over the Blue Devils.

The Razorbacks turned around to play Furman in a game that was never in doubt. The Razorbacks rolled to a 97-83 victory over the Paladins to bring the Hogs’ record to 6-3 on the season, with Battle posting a career high 25 points against Furman.

The Hogs faced another tougher game after the win over Furman when they played the Oklahoma Sooners on Dec. 9. The Razorbacks kept themselves in the game and kept it relatively close, losing to the Sooners 70-79. 

The men’s Razorback basketball team has already faced some ups and downs throughout the course of the season up to this point. The Hogs next three games are the last three non-conference games against Lipscomb, Abilene Christian, and UNC Wilmington, with conference play kicking off at the turn of 2024 with the first few SEC games coming against Auburn on Jan. 6, Georgia on Jan. 10, and Florida on Jan. 13. 

Razorback Women 8-3

The women’s basketball team is led in scoring by freshman sensation Taliah Scott, who is averaging an astounding 24.5 points per game, which is good for 7th in the nation. The team is led in blocks and rebounds by sophomore guard Saylor Poffenbarger, who averages 1.7 and 11.7 respectively. Junior guard Samara Spencer leads the team in assists at 3.4 a game, and senior guard Makayla Daniels leads the team in steals with 1.9.

Other notable contributors on the team include sophomore forward Maryam Dauda who gives the team quality production at 8 points and 6.3 rebounds, while being second on the team in blocks at 1.6. Junior guard Sasha Goforth has also been reliable when she has been healthy as she gives the team a boost with 3 points, 3 rebound, and 1.9 blocks per game, but she has only played seven games.

The team has been dominant in stretches throughout the season and has looked like a legitimate threat for March Madness and the NCAA Tournament. 

The team proved how big of a potential problem they could be by winning their first six games, with three of them being by 14 points or more. 

Games against UL Monroe and Murray State proved to be nail biters for the Lady Hogs, but the team pulled both the games out with wins, in large part due to the performances of Spencer, Scott, Poffenbarger, and Daniels. 

The Razorbacks then crushed their next three opponents, with a 77-36 domination over Little Rock, an 82-67 victory over Arkansas State, who are led by another Arkansas women’s basketball sensation Izzy Higginbottom, and an 81-67 rout of Central Arkansas. 

The team faced its first major test in the form of the Wisconsin Badgers. With the Hogs down at halftime, the team rallied back and won the game in a lower scoring affair, ending 65-62. The most valuable player on the court that day was Daniels, who willed the Hogs to victory behind her 5 3-pointers, 22 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block.

The Razorbacks were finally defeated when in the next game Marquette soundly defeated them 74-58 after a rocking start for the Hogs. The game was the first defeat of the season for the Hogs and the first time the team faced real hardship throughout the season. 

The Hogs bounced back in a big way from that defeat with a great win over #15 ranked Florida State. Scott, Poffenbarger, and Spencer led the charge against the Seminoles with Scott scoring 24 points, Spencer giving the team 15 points and 6 assists, and Poffenbarger giving the team a valuable presence on the interior with 13 points and 23 rebounds. 

The team faced it’s hardest game on the schedule after the FSU victory, with a matchup against the #2 ranked UCLA Bruins. The game was never really close and never in doubt, and unfortunately it was the Hogs that were on the sore side of that, losing to the Bruins 81-66.

The team rebounded with a dominant 100-60 win over Louisiana Tech, but struggled against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and lost 74-70, to bring their season record to 8-3. The team has shown stretches of brilliance, dominance, and flair. Scott has been one of the best players for Arkansas men’s or women’s in over a decade, and the team, as a whole, is gelling as conference play is set to begin.

The next three games for the Hogs are against Samford, Illinois, UIC, and Incarnate Word, with all of those games presenting their own challenges in unique ways, before the team begins conference play in 2024, with games against Kentucky on Jan. 4, Georgia on Jan. 7, and Mississippi State on Jan. 11.

Morgan Nunley is a journalism student at NWACC and the Online Editor at the Eagle View