FAYETTEVILLE -- The Fayetteville Regional is set and the Razorbacks drew the No. 3 national seed.

Arkansas (43-13) will not leave Baum-Walker Stadium again this season unless they make it to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Arkansas will play North Dakota State (20-32) on Friday at 2 p.m. and streamed on ESPN+. No. 2 Kansas (43-15) and No. 3 Creighton (41-14) are the other two teams in the Fayetteville Regional. Dave Van Horn isn't surprised with the pairings.

"That’s pretty much who I thought was coming," Van Horn said. "Obviously Nebraska winning yesterday, there was a possibility of them coming in as a 3. I did feel like KU would come in being three hours up the road as a 2. They’ve had a great season. You know I felt like it was going to be either North Dakota State or Little Rock coming in as the 4. So pretty much what I thought."

The Fayetteville Regional is paired with the Knoxville Regional. That regional consists of Tennessee (43-16), Wake Forest (36-20), Cincinnati (33-24) and Miami (Ohio) (35-21) in that order. If Arkansas wins the Fayetteville Regional they will host the winner from Knoxville in a Super Regional.

Van Horn was asked if he had an early scouting report on North Dakota State?

"They’ve been sneaky good over the last few years to be honest with you," Van Horn said. "They’ve taken some trips early out West and beaten some good people. You’re kind of going ‘Wow,’ because they’re playing inside. They’re practicing inside and doing it a lot most of the year. They have an older team. I was informed that they have … and I know they had them but they have like 10 seniors on their team. A lot of times that’s what it takes when you’re a mid major to be really successful at all levels is to have those older kids. They won the tournament up there. Beat Oral Roberts and obviously Oral Roberts has had a pretty good run over the years of going to regionals. So I’m sure they’re going to be a solid team."

At one time Van Horn favored the night game on Friday in this setup. He has a completely different philosophy now and in recent seasons.

"Yeah, I like the earlier slot," Van Horn said. "Don’t have to wait around all day. You can get into a bind if say the first game gets in and you’re playing the night game and all of a sudden weather rolls in and you don’t get to play. That makes it rough. I like playing the first game."

Van Horn also said he's not ready to tip his hand as far as pitching rotation.

"We pretty much know who we’re going to pitch but we’re not going to announce it yet," Van Horn said.

It's figured that Zach Root and Gage Wood will start two of the games, but beyond that Van Horn has used a few different options as the third starter.

Since Wood didn't pitch in Hoover what does his schedule look like?

"Yeah, he got a bullpen in, and then he'll get a little work in this week and we'll get him ready for the weekend," Van Horn said. "He'll be good to go."

Van Horn also went into the practice schedule for this event following Friday's loss to Ole Miss at the SEC Tournament.

"They’ve already rested up a bit," Van Horn said. "They rested up Saturday. We had a light workout yesterday. Today is pretty much on their own. That’s why we worked out yesterday so we could take today a little bit lightly, as far as team work. That we we could look over our opponents and try to get familiar with them as best we can and free them up a little bit. I mean we’ve been together as a team watching the show, talked a little bit before. We’ll work out tomorrow, around mid day. Obviously it looks like we’ll be inside. Wednesday looks better, probably around the same time. Then Thursday I think we’re the first practice time, 10 o’clock or so. The weather is not looking great on Thursday so it could be an indoor situation again. The weekend looks really good weather wise. Hopefully that’ll hold."

Van Horn admitted the Razorbacks use common opponents as a way to scout teams. From Feb. 28 thru March 5 North Dakota State played six straight games against SEC schools. The first three were against Alabama in Tuscaloosa then LSU in Baton Rouge. They went 0-6 in that stretch.

"Well, it just gives you more to go on," Van Horn said. "I don’t know if it makes it easier. Just like North Dakota going down to Baton Rouge, it shows you that they’re not scared. He knew he had older players and he thought it would help them, whether they win or lose, get better, play in a tough environment. I’m sure they’re using that now saying, ‘hey, we played in Baton Rouge. Fayetteville’s not going to be an issue’. But if they’ve never seen that, it can be an issue for a while anyway. So, yeah, that’s why we’re doing the best we can to find out as much as we can about our opponents, but at the same time it really boils down that we just do what we do, well. If we do that, we’ve got a chance to win it."

Dan Fitzgerald is the head coach of Kansas. Van Horn was asked how well he knows Fitzgerald?

"A little bit," Van Horn said. "When he was at DBU (Dallas Baptist Univeresity), out on the road a little bit. But mostly our assistants know him. Nate Thompson knows him real well and yeah, he’s done a great job, he’s a great coach there, he’s done a tremendous job at KU. When he got that job, he went in there and just really elevated the program. And he did it by, probably, the way he runs the program, but at the same time he elevated the talent level and they’ve had a great year. 20 wins in the Big 12 plus a couple wins in the tournament, so they’re going to be good.

"But the team you can’t look past is Creighton. They got in over a couple of teams that were projected to possibly get in because they beat them straight up. They’ve always played great defense, they’ve always pitched well and they don’t beat themselves. It’s their head coach’s last year, he’s retiring this year, and I’m sure they’re going to play extremely hard. "But the team you can’t look past is Creighton. They got in over a couple of teams that were projected to possibly get in because they beat them straight up. They’ve always played great defense, they’ve always pitched well and they don’t beat themselves. It’s their head coach’s last year, he’s retiring this year, and I’m sure they’re going to play extremely hard."

Van Horn also was asked if he's surprised they paired the Fayetteville Regional with the one in Knoxville?

"No, not at all," Van Horn said. "There’s a lot of SEC teams in there and we figured we’d probably be matched up with one of them."

NCAA Fayetteville Regional

Friday, May 30
Game 1 – Arkansas vs. NDSU – 2 p.m. (ESPN+)
Game 2 – Kansas vs. Creighton – 7 p.m. (ESPN+)

Saturday, May 31
Game 3 – Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser – 2 p.m.
Game 4 – Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner – 8 p.m.

Sunday, June 1
Game 5 – Game 3 Winner vs. Game 4 Loser – 2 p.m.
Game 6 – Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner – 8 p.m.

Monday, June 2 (If Necessary)
Game 7 – If the Game 5 Winner Wins Game 6 – TBD