COMMITTED TO :

TRANSFERS:
Jonas Aidoo - Tennessee: 6'11", 230 - 11.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks on 51.5 fg%, 20.0 3fg%, and 62.6 FT%
Johnell Davis - FAU: 6'4", 185 - 18.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and 1.4 steals on 48.3 fg%, 41.4 3fg%, and 85.7 FT%
Adou Thiero - Kentucky: 6'8", 222 - 7.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.1 blocks on 49.2 fg%, 31.8 3fg%, and 80.0 FT%.
Zvonimir Ivisic - Kentucky: 7'2", 235 - 5.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks on 57.7 fg%, 37.5 3fg%, and 77.3 FT%.

FRESHMEN:
6'3" 155 PG Boogie Fland - five-star No. 10
6'5" 226 SF Karter Knox - four-star No. 21
6'6" 210 SF Billy Richmond - four-star No. 22


TRANSFER CONTACTS:

Dillon Mitchell - Texas: 6'8", 205 - 9.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.0 steals on 58.5 fg% and 59.8 FT%
DJ Wagner - Kentucky: 6'3", 175 - 9.9 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 3.3 assists on 40.5 fg%, 29.2 3fg%, and 76.6 FT%
Jaylen Wells - Washington State: 6'8", 205 - 12.6 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists on 43.6 fg%, 41.7 3fg%, and 81.4 FT%.
Coleman Hawkins - Illinois: 6'10", 200 - 12.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.1 blocks on 45.1 fg%, 36.9 3fg%, and 79.2 FT%.

NAMES TO WATCH:

Arthur Kaluma


COMMITTED ELSEWHERE:

Koby Brea - (HOGS NOT IN CUT LIST) Dayton: 6'6", 175 - 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists on 51.2 fg%, 49.8 3fg%, and 87.5 FT
Jeremy Roach - (COMMITTED TO BAYLOR) Duke: 6'1", 175 - 14.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.1 steals on 46.8 fg%, 42.9 3fg%, and 84.4 FT%
Aidan Mahaney - (COMMITTED TO UCONN): 6'3", 180 - 13.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists on 38.6 fg%, 35.5 3fg%, and 81.3 FT%
Brandon Garrison - (COMMITTED TO KENTUCKY): 6'11", 245 - 7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.5 blocks on 57.2 fg% and 64.8 FT%.
Kasean Pryor

Good morning from Hoover, Alabama, where the Arkansas Razorbacks will look to avoid elimination at the SEC Tournament this morning against Kentucky. Happy Hagen Smith Day!

Full game preview:


We will have inning-by-inning coverage in this thread, plus postgame coverage to follow!

Live stats
Watch on SEC Network

AR Line Up

Arkansas Starting Pitcher
#33 Hagen Smith

UK Line Up

Kentucky Starting Pitcher
#51 Trey Pooser

Good morning from Hoover. We've got Arkansas baseball today! The Hogs are taking on the 10-seed South Carolina Gamecocks, who eliminated Alabama yesterday. Game preview:


We'll have live inning-by-inning game coverage in this thread, plus full postgame coverage following!

Live stats

Watch on SECN

SC Line Up

South Carolina Starting Pitcher
#14 Eli Jones

AR Line Up

Arkansas Starting Pitcher
#40 Ben Bybee

1. Yes this first point is a major reach but cool to think about, we could’ve potentially had a rotation last year of Skenes, Hagen, Wiggins, had everything went our way.

2. I already hate the SEC tournament, but Arkansas has been on the road the last series before the sec tournament 6/7 times. Brutal numbers there and another reason why I don’t think what they do in Hoover as a top 4 seed in a big deal.

Talked to a source just now about potential basketball scheduling.

This source is separate from the one who told me about the MTE (as I wrote about in the Mailbag piece) but said that

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Good evening, members of The Trough! We've got No. 3 Arkansas taking on No. 5 Texas A&M this evening with Hagen Smith on the mound for the final time in a regular season game for the Hogs. The Razorbacks need just one win to secure an SEC West title. First pitch is now 8 p.m. CT, ICYMI.

Live stats

Watch on ESPN2
ARK Line Up

Arkansas Starting Pitcher
#33 Hagen Smith

TAMU Line Up

Texas A&M Starting Pitcher
#18 Ryan Prager

Going to go ahead and get this game thread up and running because why not!

No. 3 Arkansas faces off against No. 5 Texas A&M at Blue Bell Park starting at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network. We'll have live commentary ITT and plenty of postgame coverage.

Arkansas has secured a top four finish in the SEC thanks to Georgia taking a loss to Florida earlier today, but the Razorbacks are still a victory away from securing the SEC West.

How to Watch/Listen:

Who: No. 3 Arkansas Razorbacks (42-11, 19-9 SEC SEC) vs. No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies (43-10, 18-10 SEC)
When: Friday, May 17 at 7:00 p.m. CT
Where: Blue Bell Park — College Station, Texas
TV/Stream: SEC Network/Watch ESPN (Tom Hart and Kyle Peterson)
Radio: Learfield Razorback Sports Network (Phil Elson)

Starting Lineups:

ARK Line Up

TAMU Line Up

Arkansas junior left-hander Mason Molina is done overthinking and ready to reignite in his newfound late-season role for the Razorbacks.

After allowing 17 earned runs across his final six SEC starts, Molina was moved to the bullpen in the Diamond Hogs' final regular season series against Texas A&M and then again in the SEC Tournament against Kentucky.

Molina has combined to toss five scoreless frames with five strikeouts and only one hit allowed in relief, a positive sign for a pitching staff in need of some consistency from its frontliners.

"But it was really good to see Mason pitch well again," head coach Dave Van Horn said on Thursday. "He threw well in relief, Game 2 against A&M, the game we needed to win to wrap up the West. And this is his first outing since, and he matched it again, threw really well."

The recent success has left an interesting question ahead of the NCAA Tournament. Does Arkansas move Molina back into a starting role? The Razorbacks could certainly use him, especially with Brady Tygart's struggles and the lack of serious punch behind Gage Wood. No matter where he's used, Molina will be ready to do his job.

"I'm going to throw where I'm needed," Molina said on Thursday. "That's up for them to decide, and I'm just going to go out there and pitch to the best of my ability wherever they want me. So we haven't talked about it yet, but I'm just going to go out there and throw to the best of my abilities."

Known for throwing too many pitches and being too fine with pitch placement, Molina has fought himself and his command multiple times throughout the year. Based on his latest two outings, it seems he's finally letting his arm take over on the mound.

"I think my command has been much better," Molina said. "I've just been filling up the zone with strikes with all four pitches, just being able to command my fastball, which is a huge part of how I pitch. So that, and the slider getting a little bit harder has really helped me go at hitters."

Switching from a starting role to a bullpen crutch can be a difficult adaptation to make for some pitchers, but Molina has taken it in stride and used the opportunity to let the game come to him.

"I think it was a really good thing for me," Molina said. "It allowed me to reset and not overthink things. So that was something we were talking about over the last weeks, just, you know, I was overthinking things and I was trying to be too fine, and now I really don't have the luxury of thinking.

"It's just kind of get hot, go in the game and let your stuff work. So I think if I end up starting at some point again, whether that's up to them or not, it would be -- I would try to transfer that over as much as I can."

Up next, the Razorbacks will await their postseason destiny ahead of the NCAA Selection Show on Monday. The 64-team bracket will be revealed starting at 11 a.m. CT and it will broadcast on ESPN2.

hell of a game to start. Going heavy on LSU and the over.

Good afternoon, folks. We've got the No. 3 Razorbacks looking to end the regular season with a series win over the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies. Arkansas will start RHP Will McEntire against A&M LHP Shane Sdao.

Live inning-by-inning updates in this thread, plus postgame coverage to follow.

Live stats

Click here to watch on SECN
ARK Line Up

Arkansas Starting Pitcher
#41 Will McEntire

TAMU Line Up

Texas A&M Starting Pitcher
#38 Shane Sdao

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Seven scholarship players, a nearly full staff, and plenty of expectations - drop your questions for the state of the program thus far.

The No. 5 Arkansas Razorbacks (43-14) exited the SEC Tournament on Thursday with an 0-2 record due to poor defense and struggles at the plate, but history may point to a possible reemergence in the NCAA Tournament based on the latest trends by league foes.

Since the Covid-19 shortened 2020 season, three SEC teams have won the national championship. Those three squads — LSU, Ole Miss and Mississippi State — combined for a 1-5 record at the SEC Tournament.

LSU’s 2023 team was the only program of those three to actually score more runs than its opponents in Hoover, Alabama, as Ole Miss and Mississippi State were outscored 3-1 and 25-3, respectively.

The three teams that won those respective SEC Tournaments — Arkansas (2021), Tennessee (2022) and Vanderbilt (2023) — all failed to make it past the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament to Omaha. Arkansas and Tennessee fell in the Supers despite being No. 1 overall seeds and the Commodores were upset by Xavier in the Regional round.

So, what does this mean for the current version of the Diamond Hogs? Well, for starters, a quick bow-out from the league tournament doesn't mean Arkansas can't get back on track once its in the healthy confines of Baum-Walker Stadium. After all, Dave Van Horn's club sports a dominant 33-3 home record this season.

Arkansas' lack of clean baseball across its two-day stay is certainly a concern, but it falls right in-line with what happened to the Bulldogs prior to their magial run. Mississippi State surrendered 33 hits across two games with two errors in 2021 and it seemed like all hope was lost, but everything changed once the NCAA Tournament began.

Here's a look at how those LSU, Ole Miss and Mississippi State championship-winning teams' SEC-only stats and final season stats compare to Arkansas' at this current juncture:

SEC Play Stats vs. Final Stats

Note: Stats listed include SEC games from regular season and SEC Tournament. Stats in parentheses are cumulative stats after NCAA Tournament.

Of the four teams, the Razorbacks have the best team ERA and fielding percentage but the worst batting average when accounting for SEC regular season games and the SEC Tournament.

"We've got to get better," Van Horn said Thursday. "We got to get better. That's what I just told 'em, we got to get more production up and down the lineup. It's spotty right now. I think guys are trying too hard, trying to do too much instead of just take what they give you sometimes.

"What I'm talking about is maybe a couple guys going out of the zone, put themselves in a bad count. We got to flip that, take the pitch, work for the next one. Yeah, we're going to have to swing the bats a lot better when we get to the regional."

On average, each team made a jump of 0.19 percentage points in batting average during the postseason. That would slot Arkansas at .263 if it makes a similar leap. The last team to hit in that range and still win the national championship was Florida in 2017, which finished with a .259 batting average.

Will that be good enough for Arkansas? Assuming the pitching staff and defense stay the same or improve, then the Hogs should have a solid chance at making another College World Series appearance.

Up next, Arkansas will return home to rest up before hearing their NCAA Tournament fate on the live selection show on Monday. It will broadcast at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN2.