By Otis Kirk
FAYETTEVILLE -- No. 8 Arkansas will take on No. 4 UConn on Thursday night at 6:15 p.m. at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas and televised on CBS.
It's the third year in a row for Arkansas to advance to the Sweet 16. They have downed No. 9 Illinois 73-63 and No. 1 Kansas 72-71 to advance in the West Regional. UConn opened tournament play with an 87-63 win over No. 13 Iona and then eliminated No. 5 Saint Mary's 70-55 on Sunday.
The Hogs got a big performance from Davonte "Devo" Davis on Saturday to surprise the Jayhawks. Davis scored 25 points and pulled down eight rebounds before fouling out of the game. Davis hit nine of his 15 attempts from the field and made all but one of his seven free throws. He scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half. Did he feel any pressure to step up on offense in the second 20 minutes?
"Not really, just playing within the flow because Coach Muss said get downhill," Davis said of the message from Eric Musselman. "He was talking within the entire group."
Davis was very pleased to have so many Razorback fans at the game including his mom.
"It's amazing seeing all the fans come out," Davis said. "My mom wasn't even going to come and I told her, I said, come on down. She drove down. It was like 7 hours. She came down, glad she got to experience this. Just right there with all the other fans, I'm glad they call came down and it's important to us.
"It's exciting, like I've been saying to the team as well, everybody don't get this opportunity so let's take full advantage. And I think the fans are doing it as well, by coming and traveling and using their money and things like that to be able to come and support us 100%. I'm glad and thankful for them to come and I know the rest of the team is and I'm speaking for all of us and I want to thank the fans as well."
In the win over Illinois, Davis had 16 points, six boards and four steals to go along with an assist. An emotional Davis echoed Musselman's statement that this team has kept improving as the season progressed.
"Like Coach said, wonderful win, feels unreal right now," Davis said. "I don't know how to react, you know, but I know it does feel good and I know the guys that haven't been a part of something like this, I know we feel like we're at the top of the world and we want to continue and get better. Like Coach Muss was saying, we not done yet and I think we can continue to get better as the season continues to go on."
While many were crediting Davis with the reason Arkansas won, the former Jacksonville standout wanted to spread the praise around.
"I feel like we all did something to help us win and I'm glad we did that," Davis said. "Ricky (Council IV) knocked down big free throws, we had Nick (Smith Jr.) come in and play really good defense at the end of the game. Everybody contributed, Coach Mus even subbed the right way and things like that to help us. Even the coaches and the team contributed in some type of way to help us win."
While Arkansas is competing to try and win a national title they are also still recruiting. The Hogs are reportedly set to host UCA transfer guard Camren Hunter today for an unofficial visit. He recently entered the transfer portal.
Hunter, a 6-foot-3, 200-pounder from Bryant High School, was the ASUN Freshman of the Year in 2022. This season, Hunter averaged 16.9 points per game, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.5 steals in 30 games for the Bears. Hunter made 50 three-pointers, second on the team, and had a team-best 92 free throws, shooting 78.6 percent from the free-throw line.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Action Sports
