Wild Boy Weekend
Stem to stern, this whole thing was decided by those firmly committed to doing the most
If you want an avatar for the first weekend of the 2023 NCAA Tournament, you can do a lot worse than the fact that the Arkansas Razorbacks are Sweet 16 bound.
Arkansas had a regular season. It started great! They won 10 of their first 11 and did most of the work there without Nick Smith, the touted prospect most thought would be the best freshman in the game this season. Eric Musselman dug deep into the transfer portal and tacked on veterans like Ricky Council IV, Trevon Brazile, and Makhel and Makhi Mitchell to supplement standout freshmen in Smith, Anthony Black and Jordan Walsh; the Razorbacks, even when Brazile was lost for the season and as Smith struggled to get on and stay on the floor, were talented enough to withstand those losses and still thrive.
A four-game early January skid preceded a 7-6 slide that began with the SEC/Big 12 challenge against Baylor and ended in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. Entering the NCAA Tournament, Arkansas was 9-11 in 2023; why should anyone have believed in them?
One weekend—one weekend involving a toppling of Illinois and the downing of top-seeded Kansas—changed the narrative for the Hawgs and oh shit Musselman has his shirt off again, get him off the table.
That’s what the weekend was for a great many teams, those still dancing and those not. An opportunity to re-write how the 2022-23 squad will be remembered and viewed, regardless of regular-season successes or failings. Virginia won 31 games in 2017-18; that’s probably not the thing folks remember about that particular Virginia season. Purdue can probably relate.
(Virginia also Did Virginia Things Again. Not the winning part, but the getting bounced early by an inferior opponent part.)