Save us, Arkansas

Good morning. How about those Sweet 16 games last night? Two No. 1 seeds were knocked out only hours apart in another wild night in the NCAA Tournament. It has been a very entertaining tournament so far, if you can stomach watching it. If not, I completely get it. But for those who are still paying attention, we should have a quick conversation about one of Thursday night’s big winners and the SEC’s last-standing team, Arkansas.

Arkansas is a rival. We don’t like Arkansas. At one time, Kentucky-vs-Arkansas was one of the nastiest rivalries in all of college basketball. You remember. Nolan Richardson’s Razorbacks joined the SEC in the early 1990s and immediately punched the league in the mouth by winning the SEC’s regular season in 1992 and again in 1994. A year later, Kentucky and Arkansas played an unforgettable championship game at the 1995 SEC Tournament, one of the many classics in the head-to-head series.

Anthony Epps called game at the free throw line in overtime.

It doesn’t get much better than those old SEC battles.

But back to the present. We still don’t like Arkansas and never will, but right now we need Arkansas. And it’s not just us; America needs Arkansas, too. For tomorrow night, we will all stand as one nation, undivided in our support of Arkansas Basketball because Arkansas is the planet’s last hope of keeping Duke out of the Final Four.

Also last night, Duke survived Texas Tech’s stifling defense to advance to the Elite Eight where Arkansas, the Gonzaga-slayer, awaits in the 8:49 PM game Saturday night. Now we, the world, need the hogs to have one more night of magic against the Blue Devils because Coach K can’t make the Final Four in his final season. He just can’t. It will end the sport forever and possibly even do irreversible damage to our ecosystem.

Do we want Arkansas in its first Final Four since 1995? No. We don’t like Arkansas, remember? It’s fun to remind Arkansas fans of how long it’s been since the hogs have mattered. But we can stomach Arkansas in the Final Four for the greater good of Earth to eliminate Coach K one weekend short of the finish line.

Save us, Arkansas. Woo pig sooie. Did I do that right?