NCAA Basketball: North Carolina, Gonzaga tumble on latest top 25 power ranking
By Joey Loose
7. Arkansas (7-1)
The Razorbacks are in good position a month into this season. They had a fine performance two weeks ago down in Maui, losing a close battle to Creighton before getting a nice win over San Diego State. While they haven’t exactly played a tough schedule outside of that tournament, the Razorbacks have looked the part of a top team in the sport and that continued this past week.
Though they trailed at halftime, Arkansas took care of business on Monday, getting a 74-61 win over Troy in their first game back on the mainland. Ricky Council IV led the way with an impressive 27-point performance. On Saturday, the Razorbacks had an easier time, finishing the week with a 99-58 win against San Jose State. Trevon Brazile led all scorers with 23 points while Council had 17 points this time.
Freshmen Anthony Black and Nick Smith are playing well and this Arkansas team has talent all over their rotation. The offense had their best game of the season against those Spartans and the defense has done enough to win some of these initial games. It’ll be interesting to see how the Razorbacks fare when thrown into the fire of conference play, but the SEC will have to wait. They have an intriguing matchup with Oklahoma next weekend, though they’ve definitely survived the toughest part of their nonconference slate.