For Arkansas, this year’s trip to Nashville wasn’t about earning a trip to the NCAA Tournament. The Razorbacks’ play over the course of 31 games sealed that deal long ago. Instead, it was about showing that they are ready to not only make the Big Dance but to do some damage when they get there. Despite a second half lull that allowed Tennessee to get back into last night’s quarterfinal game, the way they came out of the gates was encouraging. Currently projected as a #5 seed in most brackets, the Razorbacks hope to do no worse than stay in that range. While this will be the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament under head coach Mike Anderson, this is a program that has accumulated a lot of talent since he arrived. Anderson has put together a deep team on which 10 players see double-figure minutes of action. Guards Michael Qualls and Rashad Madden lead the way from the perimeter, complementing the dominant low post play of Portis.

Arkansas looks to take care of business this afternoon against Georgia in the hopes of reaching its first SEC Tournament championship game since 2008. If it can reach that point, it would most likely get another shot at Kentucky, which the Razorbacks lost to in convincing fashion just two weeks ago. Even though the program has not experienced much recent success, the goal of getting to its first Sweet Sixteen since 1996 is a realistic one. Anderson has an athletic, pressing team that plays the same “Forty Minutes of Hell” brand of basketball that was so successful during the Nolan Richardson era. In today’s era of slower-paced college basketball, Arkansas’ sixth-ranked tempo surprises teams and allows the Hawgs to use their athleticism to create turnovers and force the action. Now that they have gotten their first postseason win out of the way, using the success they find this weekend in Nashville may propel them to bigger things next week and eventually back to some measure of national prominence.