-by UATV Sports’ Tyler Woessner
The six-year postseason drought is over. Arkansas (21-11) plays Indiana State (23-10) in the first round of the NIT at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Bud Walton Arena. The game will be televised by ESPN. Tickets are $15 for the public and $5 for U of A students.
Arkansas head coach Mike Anderson, who has a 58-39 record in three seasons back on the Hill, was on ESPNU’s NIT selection show Sunday night.
“It’s another step in the right direction,” Anderson said. “We’re taking the right steps when you look at the progression of this program. There’s great tradition here, and we’re used to being in postseason play. We’re used to challenging for championships, and we’re in a championship tournament in the NIT. So we’re looking forward to it.”
The Razorbacks’ last postseason appearance was in the 2008 NCAA Tournament, when the Hogs beat Indiana in the first round and then lost to North Carolina in the next game.
The last time Arkansas and Indiana State met in basketball, the Sycamores were led by Larry Bird and they beat Sidney Moncrief’s Razorbacks 73-71 in the 1979 NCAA Tournament. Indiana State then went on to the Final Four.
Arkansas had a six-game SEC winning streak that put the Razorbacks into NCAA Tournament contention. Then they closed out the season with losses at Alabama 83-58 and to South Carolina 71-69 in the SEC Tournament. That late-season slide knocked the Razorbacks off the tourney bubble.
“We were playing good basketball,” Anderson said. “But right there at the end…we didn’t do what we needed to do in order to be in the NCAA. So that’s going to be a lesson for our team to learn, and now we get a chance in a tournament that I actually got my start in.”
Anderson was a junior starting point guard on Nolan Richardson’s Tulsa team that went on to win the 1981 NIT Championship. He averaged 11.7 points and 3.5 assists in five NIT games.
The Razorbacks are a No. 3 seed in their eight-team region of the NIT bracket. The Arkansas-Indiana State winner will advance to play the winner of California and Utah Valley.
Cal is a No. 2 seed, so it will host the second round game if the Bears get the win over Utah Valley. Arkansas played Cal in the Maui Invitational back in November and lost 85-77 to the Bears.
Cal isn’t the only team on Arkansas’ side of the bracket that the Razorbacks have already played this season. No. 1 seed SMU lost 89-78 to Arkansas in Bud Walton Arena back in November. No. 5 seed LSU is also on Arkansas’ side of the bracket. The Tigers went 1-1 this season against the Razorbacks, with each team winning at home.
Anderson is coaching in the NIT for the second time in his career. He took his first UAB team to the NIT in 2003, going 2-1 in the Tournament with the Blazers.
The Razorbacks are playing in the NIT for the third time in school history. Anderson was an assistant coach under Nolan Richardson during both of those previous NIT appearances.
Arkansas went 1-1 in the 1987 NIT, beating Arkansas State in Fayetteville and then losing on the road at Nebraska in Lincoln. The Razorbacks’ other appearance was in 1997, when they went 3-2.
Arkansas beat Northern Arizona, Pittsburgh and UNLV (all in Fayetteville) before losing to UConn and Michigan in the finals in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The Razorbacks went 3-3 against teams that made the NCAA Tournament this season, and 6-5 against teams that qualified for the NIT. Arkansas has a 2-2 all-time record against Indiana State.
The Razorbacks and Sycamores are among 19 at-large teams in the NIT. The other 13 teams are automatic qualifiers because they won their regular season conference championships, but lost in their conference tournaments.