Arkansas' disappointing season ends with loss to South Carolina

Arkansas ends its 2023-24 campaign with a 16-17 overall record, the worst in the Eric Musselman era. It is the first time Arkansas has missed the NCAA Tournament since Musselman's first season at Arkansas, which was shortened by COVID. Arkansas was the 11 seed in the SEC that year.

The loss puts a disappointing season out of its misery in Fayetteville. In a year where talented returnees mixed with flashy transfers on paper, none of the star power Arkansas seemed to have correlated to a winning basketball team on the court, nor a consistent product. 

If Arkansas played well one night, such as its first conference win against Texas A&M, the product wouldn't transfer over to the next game, which was coincidentally their first meeting of the year with South Carolina, who beat the Razorbacks by 13 on their home floor. 

While Thursday's loss officially ends Arkansas season, winning five games in five games to make the NCAA Tournament was a longshot anyway. Not everybody can be 2011 UConn, and the Hogs were about as far from that Big East championship team as could be. 

With Musselman likely already looking towards next season — if he stays in Fayetteville, that is — one of the big questions in the locker room is whether or not guard Khalif Battle returns for another season. While dormant for much of the year, he's scored at least 15 points in every game since Feb. 17, and in those nine games, has averaged 27 points per contest. 

If he can keep up that torrid pace next year, or even come close to matching it, he'll be a force once again for the Razorbacks. Big questions will also be asked in the way of junior guard Tramon Mark, the most consistent player for Arkansas this year, and sophomore forward Trevon Brazile, who like Battle, was quiet for most of the season before playing his best basketball down the stretch, including a double-double in Wednesday's win over Vanderbilt. 

Arkansas' loss to South Carolina won't define their season, but it mercifully ends it in a fashion all too familiar to Arkansas fans this year — getting blown out in a game that many gave Arkansas a shot to win.