No. 17 Arkansas suffered its worst loss of the season Saturday, and coach John Calipari does not plan a video review.
“I’m burning the tape,” Calipari said after the Razorbacks’ 95-73 defeat at Auburn that dropped them two spots in the AP Top 25.
“This stuff happens. They (the players) are not robots. They’re not computers. They’ll have games. … But that wasn’t my team. It’s not like we’re a bad team. We’re a Top 20 team who got spanked.”
Arkansas (12-4, 2-1 SEC) returns home after its first loss to a non-ranked opponent to face South Carolina (10-6, 1-2) on Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Gamecocks fell 75-70 at home to then-No.18 Georgia on Saturday, when they lost an eight-point lead in the final eight minutes and were 1 of 10 from the field in the final 5 1/2 minutes.
South Carolina coach Lamont Paris had a measured takeaway after holding the Bulldogs 20 points under their scoring average.
“There’s a lot of things that have to happen in order to win a game,” Paris said, “and one of those things happened. We defended at a high enough level. We had a bunch of good looks down the stretch.”
Arkansas’ previous three losses were to Top 12 teams Michigan State, Duke and Houston, and none were by more than nine points. The Razorbacks were never within 10 points of Auburn in the final 23 minutes.
Leading scorer Darius Acuff Jr. (19.9 points) had 19 points on 16 field goal attempts but had only one assist, as the ball stuck much too often against Auburn’s aggressive defense.
Reserve center Malique Ewin added 13 points and 12 rebounds, but the Razorbacks were outrebounded by nine.
Arkansas shot 43.1% from the floor while Auburn shot an opponents’ high 56.7%, the fourth time in seven games Razorback opponents have shot over 50%. Calipari tried a zone defense for part of the second half.
“You’re not just getting a free lane (to the basket) unless you were driving on us,” Calipari said dryly.
South Carolina laid a similar beating on the Razorbacks in the regular season last season, running up a 27-point lead in a 72-53 home win March 1. Arkansas had 14 points at halftime.
Razorbacks forward Nick Pringle, who transferred from South Carolina over the summer, had 18 points and nine rebounds for the Gamecocks in that one. He averages 4.8 points and 4.7 rebounds in 16 games (15 starts).
Arkansas won the rematch 72-68 in the opener of last season’s SEC tournament.
Gamecocks leading scorer Meechie Johnson (13.8) scored 11 points against Georgia, but his 40-foot 3-pointer with five seconds left was their only field goal after Elijah Strong’s layup gave them a 64-63 lead with 5:42 remaining.
Forward Mike Sharavjamts had 18 points Saturday, when South Carolina had success with a small lineup.
Arkansas starting forward Karter Knox suffered a hip injury that limited him to seven minutes against Auburn, and his status is unknown. Knox, averaging 8.6 points a game, went scoreless against the Tigers.
–Field Level Media
