FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas men's basketball team opened and closed its SEC regular-season schedule with losses to teams from Alabama that are ranked in the latest Associated Press poll, but the games were vastly different.
Auburn, ranked No. 13, handed the Razorbacks their most-lopsided home loss ever to a college team when the Tigers won 83-51 at Walton Arena on Jan. 6.
The only visiting team to win at Arkansas by more than Auburn's 32-point margin, according to Hogstats.com, was the Phillips 66ers, an AAU powerhouse from Bartlesville, Okla., that beat the Razorbacks 74-39 during the 1950-51 season.
Arkansas played its regular-season finale against No. 16 Alabama on Saturday at Coleman Coliseum, where the Crimson Tide needed overtime -- after a rally late in regulation -- to beat the Razorbacks 92-88.
The loss dropped Arkansas (15-16, 6-12) to the No. 12 seed in the SEC Tournament, where the Razorbacks will play No. 13 seed Vanderbilt (9-22, 4-14) at 6 p.m. Central on Wednesday at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.
Arkansas had its most SEC losses since the 2008-09 season when it was 2-14, but the Razorbacks are 3-3 since a 71-67 loss at Mississippi State in which they led with less than a minute to play.
That six-game stretch started with Arkansas winning 78-71 at Texas A&M and includes home victories over Missouri 88-73 and LSU 94-83.
In addition to the Alabama game, the losses were at No. 15 Kentucky 111-102 and against Vanderbilt 85-82 at Walton Arena.
The Razorbacks showed their improvement by leading in the second half at Kentucky and Alabama in contrast to their struggles earlier in the season, but they couldn't overcome falling behind by 16 points against the Commodores.
The season also has been a struggle for Vanderbilt, but the Commodores beat Florida 74-73 on Saturday at home.
"I know we played really poorly for an eight-and-a-half minute stretch against Vanderbilt," Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said after the Razorbacks beat LSU. "But other than that, even some of the games we've lost ... this basketball team is playing as good if not better than at any time all season.
"And that's what you want a team to do, is improve." The Razorbacks led the Tide for 38:35 of regulation before falling short in a bid to become the second SEC team along with regular-season champion Tennessee to beat Alabama on the road.
Musselman has settled on an eight-man rotation with guards Khalif Battle, Tramon Mark, Ellis Ellis, Davonte Davis and Jeremiah Davenport and big men Trevon Brazile, Makhi Mitchell and Chandler Lawson.
"They've not had the year that anybody thought they were going to have, but they've got a lot of talent and they haven't quit," Tide Coach Nate Oats said of the Razorbacks, who were ranked No. 14 in the preseason Associated Press poll. "They're actually playing their best basketball of the year." Musselman has a 110-58 record in five seasons at Arkansas and led the Razorbacks to NCAA Tournament Elite Eight appearances in 2021 and 2022 and on a Sweet 16 run last season.
"I mean, Alabama's program has one Elite Eight [in 2004] in our entire history," Oats said. "[Musselman] has had two since he's been at Arkansas, so he knows what he's doing. He had them ready to go." Musselman has said all season the Razorbacks have practiced well. He said it again after beating LSU.
"We've had good practices, we really have," Musselman said. "We've had some bad moments in games.
"This team works, man. I like coaching them. Wish the record was better.
"We've had some games where the score got away from us and we probably didn't compete like we hoped. But we're getting better.
"I think that this team is continuing to gain respect among other teams in our league. I get texts from other coaches and people around the league that we're playing better basketball.
"It's hard to do when you're sitting around .500 or whatever." Musselman's college teams at Nevada and Arkansas never have finished with a losing record in eight previous seasons, and they all won at least 20 games.
The Razorbacks would have to win the SEC Tournament -- five victories in five days -- to reach 20-16 and earn the conference's automatic NCAA Tournament bid.
Since the conference expanded to 14 teams by adding Missouri and Texas A&M for the 2012-13 season and the SEC Tournament has started on Wednesday instead of Thursday, no team has won five games.
"I think it's our job as a team, as a unit, as a program, to get better as the season progresses," Musselman said after the Alabama game. "There's no denying that we haven't done that sometimes. The wins haven't come like [Saturday].
"So we go to Nashville, see what happens.
"It's hard to win one game there, so we have to put this loss behind us and try to get ready to win the next game."