In an evenly-matched game that desperately needed a few critical calls and bounces of the ball to go Arkansas’ way, the Hogs were left with the short end of the stick in a gut-wrenching 62-65 loss to Oklahoma.
In the last three minutes of the game, three toss-up type plays went against the Arkansas basketball squad.
First, with Oklahoma up 60-59, the Sooners airballed a three-pointer that was then saved by star guard Jeremiah Fears. Fears tried to fling the ball off of Adou Thiero, who deftly sidestepped it. The ball then a fortuitous bounce for OU in the middle of three Razorbacks right into the hands of Glenn Taylor, Jr., who laid the ball in over a jumping Thiero.
Fast forward a minute and a half, and with the game tied Arkansas stopped OU, only to lose on the possession arrow on a tie-up with the 7’2” Zvonimir Ivisic on the floor.
Finally, there was Arkansas’ final playcall, which involved Johnell Davis slipping to the rim on a backcut, only to go up with a flailing shot attempt and losing out on a potential hip check call from the referee. “I think we are on the right track,” Ivisic said afterward. “We just got a little bit unlucky in the end.”
If it didn’t hurt so much, it would be more funny.
Arkansas vs Oklahoma Latest Example of Trend
Of course, this kind of bad luck is on brand with Arkansas sports these days. It’s not even a surprise that it comes five days after it was announced Boogie Fland, Arkansas’ best offensive player, will miss the rest of the season with a hand injury.
The Hogs are now just 1-6 in the SEC and have so much work to do to dig themselves out of this hole. Especially with how difficult the rest of the SEC slate will be – six of the remaining 11 games on the schedule are against ranked teams.
That starts Saturday with Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari’s return to Rupp Arena for the first time as head coach of an SEC rival.
“There will be some emotion walking into that building, and really being in town,” Calipari said after Arkansas vs Oklahoma. “Probably get together with some of my friends. They’re playing good. We’ve got our hands full.”
Although Kentucky has now lost two straight games, they are still sitting at over .500 in the league and way ahead of where Arkansas is as a program.
Arkansas Fanbase Braces for More Baseball Heartbreak
With the Hoop Hogs’ dry January putting this season in a dour mood, many Arkansas fans have turned their attention to the Diamond Hogs, instead. Dave Van Horn’s program has long been a place of spring refuge for Razorback Nation after disappointing football and basketball seasons. The longtime skipper has yet to deliver a national title, with a number of postseason letdowns along the way, but at least the Hogs are nationally relevant and compete at the top of the SEC year in and year out.
There’s enough regular season success that you can’t help but buy in for another year, even knowing you might get your heart broken again. It also always seems like the Diamond Hogs perform better in the years where the other two major sports struggle – a trend that’s backed up by the numbers, surprisingly.
The elusive national championship has been a monkey on Arkansas’ back for years ever since that incident in Omaha in 2018. A Razorback fanbase that’s currently at rock-bottom certainly hopes 2025 will finally see a break-through.
There are a few things going in the Diamond Hogs’ favor, too. First off, they check in at No. 5 in D1Baseball’s preseason poll and boast a roster stocked with both talent and experience. More importantly, the program will be debuting a new set of uniforms this season that are a throwback to Arkansas’ more traditional script-style jerseys.
Last year, the Hogs finally got rid of the horrendous Jeff Long-era “RazorFont” – only to replace it with a hideous tiny font adorned with pinstripes. The attempt at minimalism was a horrific mistake, and I personally blame those god-awful jerseys on Arkansas getting bounced in its own regional last year.
Can Arkansas Break its Apparent Athletics Curse?
Arkansas fans have long claimed that the program is cursed. After all, what else could explain the poor luck and misfortunes the athletic department has endured over the last few years?
In basketball, the injury bug has decimated Arkansas in recent seasons from Trevon Brazile and Nick Smith Jr.’s knee ailments to Fland’s recent hand injury. On the gridiron, too, injuries to key Hogs such as KJ Jefferson, Jalen Catalon, Rocket Sanders and Jaylon Braxton over the past couple years have hindered the team’s potential.
Baseball injuries could warrant a story of its own. On two occasions, Van Horn lost his ace pitcher with elbow injuries taking out stud right-handers Peyton Pallette and Jaxon Wiggins.
The bug has hit the batting order hard, too, with star players like Kendall Diggs, Brady Slavens and Peyton Stovall all having seasons derailed by injuries. Perhaps the uniform change can finally lift that apparent curse.
And yet, it seems like the Razorbacks aren’t free of their plague just yet. In fact, this curse runs deeper than dropped pop flies or “Club Dub” celebrations. Look no further than the southernmost part of the University of Arkansas’ campus.
Tin-Foil Hog Hats Propose Theory for Arkansas’ Woes
Hogdor is an Arkansas Twitter regular whose account is based on the Game of Thrones character called Hodor, a giant who only knows how to say one word — hodor. Hogdor simply adds on one more letter to get his Razorback-related points across, and it’s both hilarious and surprisingly effective. Here’s his latest masterpiece proposing a cause of Arkansas’ curse:
Surely not, right?
But indeed, another user, @Will_NSS, replied that he had been “screaming about” this phenomenon for years. This claim merited some investigation and it turns out that, yes, the University of Arkansas campus was constructed right on top of a segment of the infamous Trail of Tears – the historic pathway that Native Americans had to follow in the 1800s as they were expelled from their homelands and forced onto designated “Indian Territory” in present-day Oklahoma.
Aside from the atrocity of displacing these Indigenous communities from their homes, many died of starvation, disease or exposure along the trail. Many monuments have been erected to honor those lost in the tragedy, including the Trail of Tears Park and Historic Site in Fayetteville – located on the corner of MLK Jr. Blvd. and Stadium Drive.
This is the location “of an encampment of approximately 1,200 Cherokee who, on January 13, 1839, were on a forced march from their homeland in the southern Appalachians,” according to Arkansas.com. “The University of Arkansas now sits on the site.” Given that the Cherokees’ final destination was Oklahoma, perhaps it’s no coincidence that the Hogs’ latest lack of luck comes at the hands of that state’s flagship university.
Fayetteville’s commemorative park includes 4.5 acres of landscape and sculptures, along with a plaque memorializing the Trail of Tears. It lies in the grassy area near Lot 56 and Razorback Field, the home of Arkansas soccer.
Of course, the United States government never made much effort to make things right with the Native American community. No compensation was made for lost property and hardships, and nearly half of those living on reservations today don’t have access to clean drinking water.
Obviously, a nice garden and a plaque come nowhere close to making up for the suffering that the Cherokee tribe (and many others) endured on the Trail of Tears. The countless Cherokee Casino advertisements that flood television airways everyday don’t help Arkansas’ karma, either.
Some believe in spiritual powers, and others don’t. But with such a historically devastating event happening at the foot of the road along which both Razorback Stadium and Bud Walton Arena sit, it’s not too far-fetched to suggest that the Arkansas athletic program is haunted.
Suggesting spirits and ghosts can cause sports team’s struggles is nothing too far-fetched Tennessee fans have long speculated that dead bodies under Neyland Stadium are the cause of the Volunteers’ misery in the 21st century.
Argentinian football fans have taken things even further, with supporters of the club Independiente once burying dead cats under the field of their crosstown rivals Racing Club on the advice of a local witch. Racing Club didn’t win a trophy for 35 years until they finally dug up all the cats – after which they immediately won the league title.
NIL money and fan support aside, maybe Arkansas’ struggles lie further below the surface. Some holy water and land acknowledgements might be just what the doctor ordered…
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Special thanks to @HogdorHogdor and @Will_NSS for sparking this story. Give them both a follow on Twitter. Evin Demirel contributed to the above.
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