We’ll hear from Chin at 11:30 today. Updates ITT.

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We'll have Arkansas associate head coach Kenny Payne at noon to preview the Missouri game.

Updates and video to come ITT.

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I wonder if we see him next game. He looked really frustrated today after he did whatever he did to tweak it. He was back in the line up at the start of the 2nd but was clearly not right. He came out and didn’t come back in. I haven’t seen much said about it so I guess it’s nothing to worry about.

I can tell he’s frustrated. He was hobbled after it happened.

The latest on an abbreviated junior day:

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Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn gave a long-awaited update Wednesday on the status of senior outfielder Kendall Diggs, who suffered a torn labrum during the 2024 season.

Diggs, who exited a game against McNeese State in March with the injury, was hitting .357 at the time before finishing the year with a lowly .229 batting average.

It seems, after an offseason of recovery, the SEC veteran is on track for a major return for the Diamond Hogs.

"He's 100% cleared to do everything now," Van Horn said Wednesday. "Now, it's all about timing at the plate. Getting that bat speed back that he's had in the past. Seeing live pitching and just feeling confident...now it's not about him being part of the team, because he's going to be a big part of the team. It's just a matter of how soon. We know what he can do when he's full-go."

A 6-foot-0, 210-pound lefty hitter from Olathe, Kansas, Diggs was named to the All-SEC Second Team in 2023 after slashing .299/.436/.547 with 12 home runs and a team-high 63 RBIs.

"You look at what (Kendall) has done in the past, he played 50-some games last year with major tears," Van Horn said. "He's swinging the bat, he's going to hit live pitching tomorrow. When I say live pitching, not just batting practice, we're talking live pitching. So, we'll see how that goes. He's a little bit behind, but he'll get there."

Even after his 2024 injury, many expected Diggs to be selected in the 2024 MLB Draft, and his return gave Arkansas another competitive piece in a loaded outfield full of transfer portal additions.

"He's stronger than ever, even with the shoulder injury," Van Horn said. "He's had a chance to work on his lower half and he's a full-grown man now. It's time to go, and I think he's excited about being out there."

The Razorbacks will open their season Friday, Feb. 14, against Washington State at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.

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FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks (12-8, 1-6 SEC) followed up their win over Georgia with a close, 65-62 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners (15-4, 2-4 SEC) on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena.

The Hogs, as they did Wednesday, overcame a double-digit deficit, but this time were unable to complete the comeback. With 12.4 seconds left in the game and Arkansas trailing by one, Johnell Davis — who finished with a team-high 18 points — missed a layup that would have given the Hogs the lead.

Oklahoma's Duke Miles grabbed the rebound, passed it ahead to Jalon Moore, and he slammed it home with less than a second left to ensure an Oklahoma win.

With the loss, Arkansas falls to 1-6 in league play. Here are some of HawgBeat's takeaways from Saturday's loss...

Nelly Davis breaks out​

As mentioned above, Davis finished the game with 18 points, the most on either team. He wasn't necessarily the most efficient as he shot just 31%, but he also had four steals and was one of three Razorbacks to finish positive in the plus-minus box.

This is the second game the Hogs have played without star point guard Boogie Fland, and it's the second game Davis has seen his role increase with the team. Beyond the box score, he looks more comfortable in his role and is playing with a lot more confidence than he has in previous games.

"I'm with him, and he's getting better,'" Arkansas head coach John Calipari said postgame. "There's still some breakdown stuff, but he's getting better. Got to quit thinking so much. And you know, he did some good things."

Second-half free throws told the story of the game​

Arkansas lived at the free throw line in its win over Georgia, but it was the Sooners in the second half of Saturday's game who set up shop at the charity stripe to get the win.

The refs seemed to let a lot of physical play go in the first half, as the two teams shot a combined nine free throw attempts in the first 20 minutes. But in the second half, the referees got more involved with the whistle.

Let's be clear here — Arkansas lost this game because of poor execution in the second half that the Sooners took advantage of. But the fact is that Oklahoma shot 20 free throws in the final 20 minutes to Arkansas' 11, and they made the most of those opportunities with 16 makes.
The biggest free-throw gut punch Arkansas had to endure came in the second half. The Hogs had just taken a six-point lead, 50-44, and looked to be poised to run away with the win, until they fouled three-point shooters on back-to-back plays.

Sooners forward Luke Northweather hit the first three and guard Jeremiah Fears hit the latter to tie the game and erase any kind of momentum the Hogs had.

Big Z needs to get more minutes​

Arkansas center Zvonimir Ivisic has put in two efficient games in a row and is playing at a higher level than his frontcourt counterpart Jonas Aidoo. The Croatia native finished with 10 points, hit two threes, had six rebounds and three blocks in 27 minutes Saturday night.

At this point, it may be time to start giving him an extra five to 10 minutes per game, at least based on their performances Saturday. Aidoo finished the game with no points, one rebound, no assists and a turnover, though it is worth noting he only played nine minutes in the contest.

"(Zvonimir) in a great frame of mind," Calipari said. "He’s got a great spirit about him right now. He’s taking responsibility versus trying to blame anybody. He’s taking responsibility and he’s working in practice, he’s spending the time you have to spend at this and it’s paying off."

Both Aidoo and Ivisic give the Razorbacks great length and shot-blocking ability, but Big Z has the ability to knock down shots from deep that Aidoo doesn't. For an Arkansas team that has struggled to shoot since SEC play started, that extra threat could be an added boost.

"I thought we needed rim protection because they were running downhill, and then we collapsed and they were throwing back for threes," Calipari said. "So I said, I'll put the shot blocker in there. And Z had three block shots and six rebounds and did all right."

The latest in the Recruiting Rumor Mill:

Login to view embedded media The Razorbacks (12-7, 1-5 SEC) got their first conference win Wednesday against Georgia because of their relentless effort on the boards and their toughness, and they'll need to do it again when they face the Oklahoma Sooners (14-4, 1-4 SEC) on Saturday at Bud Walton Arena.

Arkansas finished the game versus Georgia +10 in the rebounding department, and it was the first time in Southeastern Conference play that the Hogs out-rebounded their opponent.

Assistant coach Chuck Martin met with the media Friday to preview Oklahoma and he said the win over Georgia showed how tough the team is.

"It’s a war every night, so for us to out-rebound them...rebounding is an indicator of toughness," Martin said. "If we can out-rebound Georgia in an SEC game the way we did the other night, it’s an indication that we have toughness."

The Hogs finished with 40 rebounds against Georgia, with 18 coming on the offensive end, a season-high. Martin said freshman wing Karter Knox, who finished with six rebounds and went to the free throw line 13 times, was especially impressive.

"We asked Karter and the other bigs, 'Hey, you’ve gotta commit to going to the glass and really try to put effort into this,'" Martin said. "I give Karter a lot of credit, and (Trevon Brazile), all our bigs, all of those guys, but I mention Karter because he’s the youngest of the group and for him to go rebound the ball in the manner he did and the moments he did, it’s great to see his development in real time."

Oklahoma presents less of a threat on the glass than any of the other teams the Hogs have faced this season. The Sooners rank dead last in the SEC in total rebounds at 32.8 per game and are dead last in both offensive (8.9) and defensive (23.9) boards per game. The Hogs, on the other hand, are ranked 10th in total rebounds, 13th in offensive rebounds and sixth for defensive rebounds.

Arkansas and Oklahoma have a common opponent in Georgia, which the Sooners faced on Jan. 11. The Bulldogs won 72-62, out-rebounded the Sooners 41-33 and had 16 second-chance points. Oklahoma had 10 offensive boards and only mustered six second-chance points in the contest.

Along with Knox, Arkansas has a plethora of players who are getting a taste of the SEC for the first time. Martin said there's a slight learning curve for those guys, and it appears they're coming around.

"For our young guys and our new guys who have never played in this league, it takes some time to get accustomed to the athleticism, the size, the physicality," Martin said. "I think we saw that the other night that they’re starting to make that adjustment."

It can't just be a one-off performance for this group on the glass, though. The Razorbacks have a ton of work cut out for them if they hope to play themselves back into the NCAA Tournament picture, and that starts with a matchup against the Sooners on Saturday.

"(Oklahoma is) a good team, they had some good wins early in the year," Martin said. "I think they beat Arizona early on in the year, I think Georgia Tech they beat early on in the year...so they’re a really good team. This is just an unbelievable league.

"They want to push the ball and get up and down in transition. Their guard play is really, really good. You know they’re going to come in here and be super, super physical, play really, really hard. So it’s an SEC game."

Saturday's game between the Razorbacks and Sooners will tip off from Bud Walton Arena at 7:30 p.m. CT and it will air on ESPN2.

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Ask Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn, and he'll admit that last year's Diamond Hogs team, led by star lefty Hagen Smith, was probably pretty average without the hard-throwing ace on the mound.

"(Smith is) a once-every-now-and-then type of guy that you get to be around, that talent and what he did for our team," Van Horn said Wednesday. "You take him off of our team last year, we’re probably pretty average because we were a really good fielding team and we didn’t hit real well and we weren’t very dynamic as far as some other things, but we probably overachieved."

Fast forward an offseason full of quality transfer and freshmen additions and a year for players to develop, and that couldn't be more untrue for the 2025 Razorbacks.

To name a few, Arkansas reeled in top portal lefties in East Carolina'a Zach Root (3.56 ERA, 76 strikeouts) and Ohio State's Landon Beidelschies (4.15 ERA, 91 strikeouts), plus freshmen arms in Perfect Game No. 56 RHP Carson Wiggins and Perfect Game No. 109 LHP Cole Gibler.

With those four, plus returning right-handers Gabe Gaeckle (2.32 ERA, 57 strikeouts) and Gage Wood (4.46 ERA, 56 strikeouts) and a plethora of others, Arkansas has the makings of one of the deepest pitching staffs in program history and the country.

"We don’t have 'that guy', but what we have is we have a staff and we have a lot of really good pitchers who work hard," Van Horn said. "I think they just make each other better."

Who exactly will start on the mound and in what order is still up for grabs, though, according to Van Horn.

"I mean, we’re going to let them prove it to us a little more," Van Horn said. "We saw a lot of good things in the fall, and then off-season, I think just because we’ve been around Gabe Gaeckle so much, had him here, we feel like that he will definitely be a starter. (Zach) Root looks like a starter. Gage Wood. (Landon) Beidelschies. Those are all possibilities, and there are some other guys in there, now."

Arkansas opens the season with a four-game series against Washington State, which should serve as a good opportunity to see plenty of arms before facing tougher competition in the College Baseball Series at Globe Life Field from Feb. 21-23.

"But the first weekend, we play four games, which I think is a good thing for this team, and then head down to Texas," Van Horn said. "If you look at our schedule, there aren’t a lot of games where you can go, ‘okay, we’re going to experiment with that freshman out there’. Although, in some cases with freshmen, it’s not an experiment. They’re pretty darn good. I mean, yeah, kind of tip-toeing around the question, but I mentioned four guys at the top and they’ll battle for those jobs to start out."

The Razorbacks will open their season Friday, Feb. 14, against Washington State at Baum-Walker Stadium in Fayetteville.

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Wow, pretty big time for Gaeckle. Didn’t expect this

Starting 0-3 in SEC play isn’t ideal @Trips32_10_44

Final Rivals250: https://n.rivals.com/prospect_rankings/rivals250/2025
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Gorney's position-by-position breakdown: https://n.rivals.com/news/rivals-rankings-week-final-2025-rivals250-released
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Five players who blew up during this recruiting cycle and finished as 5-stars: https://n.rivals.com/news/five-star-prospects-who-began-the-2025-cycle-as-three-stars

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As the final seconds ticked away on Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena, the Razorbacks (12-7, 1-5 SEC) and fans alike were loud and excited to see a 5-game losing streak snapped with a 68-65 win over the Georgia Bulldogs (14-5, 2-4 SEC).

It wasn't easy, and it didn't always look pretty. Arkansas shot a dismal 31% from the field and 13% from deep. Georgia held a 15-point advantage in the second half and it appeared the Hogs were headed for their 6th-straight loss, but that didn't happen.

VIDEO: Calipari, players postgame - Arkansas 68, Georgia 65

The Razorbacks used an exceptional level of effort and hustle, especially in the second half, to claw back and leave the stadium as victors.

"Told them at halftime, ‘Guys, you missed every three, and we're still in the game," Arkansas head coach John Calipari said postgame. "We're down five baskets. Don't go nuts. We're fine. We'll make shots.’ Our 7-foot-2 guy (Zvonimir Ivisic) is the only guy to make a three, and it was right at the buzzer at the end of the half. Come on. We're fine."

The effort and hustle displayed by the Hogs was prevalent in both the rebounding and free throw categories, two areas they have struggled in since SEC play started.

For the first time since league play started, Arkansas out-rebounded its opponent and finished +10 over the Bulldogs. The 18 offensive rebounds they hauled in were a season-high, and they capitalized on them with 33 second-chance points.

Forward Adou Thiero finished the game with a team-high five offensive boards (11 total), with the last being most critical. With 1.4 seconds left and the game tied at 65, he went to the line to shoot two free throws.

RELATED: Thiero's double-double effort leads Arkansas past Georgia

Thiero made the first, but the second hit the front of the rim and he instantly went into attack mode, grabbed the rebound and put the ball in the hoop to put the Razorbacks up three at the buzzer.

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From an analytical perspective, it's possible intentionally missing the second free throw was the better option, because Georgia was out of timeouts and there would have only been a chance at a Hail Mary full-court shot, but Thiero said that wasn't the case.

"It just came off short," Thiero said of the final free throw of the game. "I knew it was short, but my mindset was just finish this game. Get us one (win) under our belt, and I was able to do that."

BOX SCORE: Arkansas 68, Georgia 65

The whole band of Razorbacks made rebounding the basketball an emphasis, and Thiero said it was an issue of pride that gave them that energy.

"Word around the SEC, you know, we’re soft," Thiero said. "They’re going to try to come here and punk us. Nah. We had to fix that and show we have fight in us. You’re not going to come in here and punk us around, no matter what."

Arkansas was a frequent visitor of the free throw line in Wednesday's game, as it attempted 34 shots from the charity stripe in what some might call a "ref show" that featured a total of 49 foul calls between both teams.

RELATED: Social media reacts to Arkansas' 68-65 win over Georgia

But the Hogs, who were a 70.8% free throw shooting team heading into the game, made the most of those opportunities and went 29-of-34 (85.3%). Georgia finished 20-of-29.

"We started driving the ball, being aggressive, attacking the glass," Arkansas forward Karter Knox said. "We were too strong, so they can’t handle us. We just went in, fought for the ball, drove, got fouled and capitalized on the free throws."

Speaking of Knox, he played a strong game that featured 13 points, 11 of which came from the free throw line. He finished with six rebounds, and even though it doesn't necessarily show in the box score, his effort and tenacity were on full display to those who were watching.

"Coaches told me at halftime to drive the ball and stop settling," Knox said. "I adapted to it really well, started driving it, got fouled. Started going for rebounds, got fouled. I’m too strong, they couldn’t hold me down there. Just going in, being aggressive."

ALSO READ: Takeaways from Arkansas' 68-65 win over Georgia

There's still a lot of work to do if Arkansas wants to get back in the NCAA Tournament picture, but every marathon starts with the first step, and that's what the Hogs did on Wednesday.

"It feels good to finally get a win in SEC play," Thiero said. "We struggled the first couple weeks on the court and off the court. We’d get on the court and then we’d start feeling the pressure. Guys had to feel pressure off the court, too."

Arkansas' next game will come at home, where the Razorbacks will host the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday night. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT and the game will air on ESPN2.

From @DanielFair

FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks (12-7, 1-5 SEC) snapped a five-game losing streak with a gritty, come-from-behind 68-65 win over the Georgia Bulldogs (14-5, 2-4 SEC) on Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena.

It wasn't all sunshine and roses for the Hogs, who trailed by as many as 15 points in the second half. Arkansas shot an abysmal 31% from the field and 13% from deep, but it used a strong effort at the free throw line to claw back into the game and secure the win. The Hogs shot 34 total free throws and made 29 of them.

Wednesday's game was also the first since conference play started that Arkansas won the rebounding battle. The Hogs out-rebounded Georgia, 40-30, and it was an offensive rebound by Adou Thiero off of his own missed free throw with 1.4 seconds left that solidified the win.

The Hogs were without their point guard, as freshman Boogie Fland had successful surgery on his thumb Wednesday and will be out for an indefinite amount of time, according to a release from the school. Thiero said Fland was still a part of the postgame celebration, though.

"As soon as we walked into the locker room, I was, ‘call Boogie!’" Thiero said. "Got him on FaceTime, you know, he was there for the celebration and coach’s speech after."

Thiero led the Hogs in scoring with 17 points and notched a double-double with 11 rebounds, five of which were offensive boards. Karter Knox added 13 of his own, 11 of which came at the free throw line, and had six rebounds in 34 minutes of play.

Here are some of HawgBeat's takeaways from Wednesday's win...

CONTINUE READING HERE

Arkansas offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino got his quarterback for the class of 2026 on Thursday, as three-star gunslinger Jayvon Gilmore announced his commitment to the Razorbacks.

The Gaffney, South Carolina, native chose the Hogs over offers from NC State, Virginia Tech, Louisville and Texas A&M.

As a sophomore for Ben Lippen High School, the 6-foot-6, 195-pound dual-threat signal caller threw for 1,767 yards and 22 touchdowns and added 112 yards on the ground in 11 games.

Arkansas extended its offer to Gilmore on May 13. He recently took a visit to Fayetteville last weekend for the HogWild Hangout, and saw enough to know Arkansas was his future home.

Following Gilmore’s commitment, Arkansas now sits with three recruits in the fold for the class of 2026. He joins four-star defensive back Tay Lockett and offensive lineman Tucker Young.

Be sure to follow along at The Trough premium message board for the latest news in Arkansas football recruiting.

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