Reeling Razorbacks fight back to snatch first SEC win of 2025 from visiting Georgia Bulldogs

Already stumbling to an apparent 0-5 start to SEC play in 2025, down by another double-digit lead well into the second half, knowing the team has just lost their freshman floor leader for the season and seldom heard boo birds calling down from the rafters of hallowed Bud Walton Arena onto Nolan Richardson Court, the Arkansas Razorbacks didn't seem to have much left to fight for.

Another home loss to go 0-6 in conference play with the team's second-leading scorer on the shelf for good would surely secure the final nail in the coffin for coach John Calipari's first season at Arkansas. However somewhere along the final 16 minutes and forty seconds, the hall of fame coach's young team finally seemed to take the heart Calipari's pleas to never give up, keep fighting, do the little things like rebounding, making your free throws, hustling for loose balls and grind out a win.

"We tried to make it a point that at the beginning that  if everything doesn’t go our way offensively we’ve got to stay together and lock everything down on the defensive side," said junior forward Adou Thiero whose front-end free throw with 1.8 seconds remaining gave Arkansas the final lead. Theiro, who also leads the team in scoring, rebounding and steals missed the second free throw but out-fought four Bulldogs and scored the final bucket for the desperately needed three-point victory. "That’s what we did. Everyone was on the same page. I think that was the biggest thing was we communicated."

Theiro was joined in double figures by freshman guard Karter Knox who scored 11 of his 13 points from the free throw line on 11-of-13 shooting from the charity stripe. Knox joined the rest of his back court mates in a terrible night shooting from the floor. Collectively, the Razorback guards made seven-of-44 field goal attempts and one-of-eighteen three-point shots in the game.

The Hogs managed to win the game by out rebounding their opponents 35-27 — including 14-7 on the offensive glass while making 29 of 34 field goal attempts.

"That’s one thing about us. We are not going to give up at all," Knox said. "We are going to fight until there are zeros on the clock. That goes for every single one of us because we all go at each other in practice. It just translated into the game."

No longer a failure to communicate?

Calipari echoed those sentiments in the post game speech to his team in the locker room and in the post game press conference to the media.

"My job is I’ve got to hold them accountable while picking them up," Calipari told the media afterwards. "I’m being positive and hugging them but holding them accountable. You’ve got a job to do. It’s our chance to write our own story."

The hall of fame coach apparently sees the game as a chance to write a story with a happy ending.

"I’m making sure I stay focused on them and getting their minds right because they will be able to look back on this experience and 20  years from now or five years from now and be able to take things from it where adversity hits," he said. "And you know and I know, it hits all of us. It just hits us in different ways and how do you handle it?"

No whitewashing an Arkansas win

Georgia coach Mike White declined an invitation to blame the referees for his formerly ranked No. 23 team's third-straight loss in conference play. The Bulldogs (14-5, 2-4 SEC) have previously lost to No. 1 Auburn, No. 6 Tennessee and No. 24 Ole Miss. Only the Auburn loss was in Athens 70-68. White also credited Arkansas' ability to force turnovers as critical to Tuesday night's outcome.

"We just didn’t do a good enough job hitting the offensive glass  and we got pounded on the defensive glass — especially in the second half," said Bulldog coach Mike White. "When you give up 18 offensive rebounds on the road, it’s tough to overcome. A lot of those led to fouls, which led to 29 free throws. Credit those guys for attacking the glass. They are long. They are athletic. They play really hard. They are tough and they are physical. 

"Our defensive attention to detail and physical and mental toughness wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be to win on the road. We didn’t answer the bell on the defensive glass. Thirteen (turnovers) is not bad. If it’s 12, you probably win the game. If it’s nine, you certainly win the game. That’s how important those turnovers are.

"Arkansas is good. They are a very very good team. This is one of the only leagues where you can get off to a tough start. Anyone in this league can reel off a few. Or they can win a few and then struggle for a few. That’s because everybody in this league is really good and Arkansas is very very good."

Better Sooners than later

The Razorbacks will have to defend their home court again on Saturday against the Oklahoma Sooners if they want to prove the win against the Bulldogs was not a fluke.

"The word around the SEC is that we are soft," Theiro said. "They are going to come in here and try to punk us. We had to fix that and show we had fight in us. We are not going to let you just come in here punk us around no matter what.

"The games we lost in SEC play … we go on dry spells and that’s our fault. When shots are not falling, we’ve got to get the offensive rebounds that we were giving other teams. We just had to buckle down tell each other to win a game we’ve got to do the things we haven’t done. Today we decided to buckle down and really go out there and fight and show everyone we are here to stay. We can start 0-5 but we are going to keep fighting. We are not going to give up."