There are tough losses, and then there is what happened to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa.
Arkansas scores 115 and still loses in historic SEC heartbreak
Arkansas scored 115 points. They turned the ball over fewer than 10 times. They had a freshman drop 49 in a true road game. And they still walked out of Coleman Coliseum with a loss, falling 117-115 in double overtime to the Alabama Crimson Tide.
According to OptaStats, Arkansas is the only Division I team in the last 30 seasons to score 115 or more points with fewer than 10 turnovers and still lose. Division I teams had been 247-0 over that span when hitting those marks in a single game.
Arkansas is the only Division I team in the last 30 seasons to score 115+ points with fewer than 10 turnovers but still lose.
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) February 19, 2026
Division I teams had been 247-0 over that span when doing that in a game. pic.twitter.com/BoA6m7nZBt
Two hundred forty seven and zero.
Until now.
Darius Acuff Jr. delivers a performance for the ages
Freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr. was sensational. He scored 49 points, the second most in college basketball this season and the most ever by an Arkansas player in SEC play. He played all 50 minutes. He hit the game tying three at the end of regulation to force overtime at 95.
He did everything you could ask of a star on the road.
And yet the final possessions in both overtime periods ended with the ball in his hands and no basket to show for it. A pair of late misses, one in each extra frame, kept Arkansas from stealing what would have been one of the best road wins of the season.
It is cruel that a performance like that will be remembered for what did not fall instead of everything that did.
A seven man rotation finally runs out of gas
Arkansas did not just lose a track meet. They ran out of bodies.
John Calipari leaned on a seven man rotation throughout regulation. By the time the second overtime rolled around, four Razorbacks had fouled out. That forced Arkansas to turn to two players who had logged a combined 35 minutes all season.
Against a ranked Alabama team, on the road, in double overtime, that is almost impossible to survive.
Meanwhile Alabama had answers everywhere. Labaron Philon Jr. poured in 35. Aiden Sherrell added 26 and 13 rebounds. Amari Allen chipped in 19 and 11. Houston Mallette buried the decisive three with 51 seconds left in the second overtime.
Even then Arkansas had a chance. Malique Ewin missed a point blank dunk attempt that would have tied the game in the closing seconds. The ball rolled off. The horn sounded. And just like that, one of the most statistically dominant offensive nights in program history turned into a loss.
The SEC race only gets tighter
The defeat drops Arkansas to 19-7 overall and 9-4 in SEC play, level with Alabama and Tennessee in a crowded race behind Florida. Instead of gaining ground, the Razorbacks now sit in a logjam where every possession over the final few weeks will matter.
That is what makes this one sting even more.
You score 115 on the road in league play, protect the ball, shoot well enough to survive two overtimes and get 49 from a freshman. Ninety nine times out of one hundred, you win comfortably. Over the last three decades, teams were 247-0 in that exact scenario.
Arkansas just became the one.
There will be lessons about depth, about fouling, about finishing possessions. But sometimes college basketball is simply brutal. The Razorbacks played well enough to win. Historically well enough to win.
And still, they did not.