FAYETTEVILLE -- For an Arkansas Razorbacks basketball program steeped in glories of Eddie Sutton and Nolan Richardson and coming off Coach Mike Anderson's 27-9 season, Tuesday's 89-76 triumph over Evansville may not seem significant.
It's saturated with significance for these 4-4 Razorbacks.
And it wouldn't have been taken for granted even by the great Richardson- and Sutton-coached teams of Arkansas' past.
So-called mid-majors from Evansville's Missouri Valley Conference and the Ohio Valley Conference -- the home of Tennessee Tech (7-2), Arkansas' opponent tonight at Walton Arena -- inevitably have been a thorn in the side of the basketball elite.
Those thorns seem to come faster and damage deeper into college basketball's big boys now. Mid-majors become tougher in part because the elite tend not to be quite so elite.
The lure of the NBA, which cost Arkansas star underclassmen Bobby Portis and Michael Qualls after last season, afflicts high-profile college programs more than mid-majors.
The mid-majors' best, who often develop as good or better than the elite's elite, tend to stay through their senior seasons. They provide continuity and cohesiveness that bigger name programs, like Arkansas, struggle to retain because of professional interruptions.
These Razorbacks experienced those consequences firsthand. The mid-major Akron Zips of the Mid-American Conference zapped Arkansas 88-80 in the second game of the season Nov. 18 at Walton Arena.
So it's significant improvement that Arkansas, which lost by eight to the veteran Zips in November, wins by 13 over Evansville's veteran Purple Aces.
As good or better than Akron, Evansville is apt next season to graduate to the NBA huge senior center Egidijus Mockevicius (22 points, 12 rebounds, 4 blocked shots and 3 steals against Arkansas) and senior guard D.J. Balentine.
Thanks to 6-10 reserve Willy Kouassi's support of 6-10 starting center Moses Kingsley, the Razorbacks weathered the Mockevicius storm while their guards held Balentine to six under his 22.3 scoring average.
"I feel we have more guys that are playing well," Anderson said of his Razorbacks after the Evansville game.
Newcomers like Kouassi, the graduate student transfer from Kennesaw State, freshman Jimmy Whitt and Dusty Hannahs, the three-point marksman (23 of 46) transfer from Texas Tech who leads Razorbacks scorers with an average of 18.3 points coming off the bench, are coming into their own.
Meanwhile Kingsley, Anthlon Bell, Jabril Durham, Manuale Watkins and Keaton Miles, all role players last season, are emerging from the shadows the departed Portis, Qualls, Ky Madden and Alandise Harris.
Probably most pleasing to Anderson was hearing Evansville Coach Marty Simmons say it was Arkansas' aggressive defense that trumped his Purple Aces.
"They turned up their pressure," Simmons said. "It's hard to emulate in practice the way they play."
Coming from a gritty mid-major, that's a major compliment to these Razorbacks.
Sports on 12/12/2015