FAYETTEVILLE — Despite the University of Arkansas basketball team suffering its first loss of the season, the Razorbacks are in the top 25 of the first NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings.
Arkansas, which lost to Missouri 81-68 on Saturday in Walton Arena, is No. 24 in the NET rankings released Monday.
The NET rankings is a system the NCAA adopted two years ago to replace the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). It’s based on game results, the quality of victories — including where the game is played — and strength of schedule.
The Razorbacks (9-1, 1-1 SEC) are among five SEC teams in the top 25 of the NET rankings behind No. 3 Tennessee (7-1, 1-1), No. 10 Missouri (7-1, 1-1), No. 22 Florida (5-1, 2-0) and No. 23 LSU (6-2, 1-1).
“The good thing, when you play really good teams, your NET goes up regardless of the outcome of the game,” Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. “I mean, look, Missouri’s NET’s awesome. They’ve beaten some really good teams and they’re ranked in the top 15.”
Missouri has beaten Illinois at home, beaten Oregon at a neutral site in Omaha, Neb, and won at Wichita State in addition to winning at Arkansas.
While the NET rankings are among the criteria used by the NCAA Tournament selection committee in choosing 36 at-large spots, Musselman didn’t want to put too much stock into the first poll.
When a writer on Musselman’s Monday Zoom call began listing some of the top SEC teams to ask him about the NET rankings, Musselman showed a piece of paper with the spots for Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas written on it.
The paper, Musselman said, was handed to him by Anthony Ruta, Arkansas’ director of basketball operations.
“Here’s what I’m going to do with it,” Musselman said as he smiled, wadded up the piece of paper and tossed it aside.
The Razorbacks play at Tennessee on Wednesday night, then play at home against Georgia (No. 86 NET) and on the road at LSU and Alabama (No. 36).
“This stretch we knew was going to be really difficult,” Musselman said. “Then we threw in that Auburn game to start.”
Arkansas opened SEC play with a 97-85 victory at Auburn — which is No. 76 in the NET rankings — on Wednesday night.
“When the schedule came out, we were like, ‘That’s not an easy way to start,’” Musselman said. “We’ve just got to come out and try to play a lot better [at Tennessee] than we did the other night [against Missouri].”
Oklahoma State, where Arkansas plays Jan. 30 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, is No. 35 in the NET rankings after winning in overtime at Texas Tech on Saturday.
Among the nonconference teams Arkansas has beaten, Abilene Christian is No. 73, Oral Roberts is No. 121 and North Texas is No. 122.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is No. 136, the University of Central Arkansas is No. 223, the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff is No. 326 and Arkansas State University is No. 327.
Mississippi Valley State, which Arkansas beat 142-62 to open the season, is last in the NET rankings at 340.