Dave Van Horn shares Arkansas' mental state ahead of NCAA Tournament

On3 imageby:Justin Rudolph05/29/23

Arkansas may have been bounced out in the semifinal round of the SEC tournament, but they are in a prime position to control their own destiny in the College World Series. After capturing the SEC’s regular season crown, the Razorbacks earned the right to host a regional and quite possibly a super regional in this year’s championship tournament.

Shortly after it was revealed that Arkansas would be a host team on selection Monday, Razorbacks head coach Dave Van Horn shared his thoughts on the mental state of his team ahead of NCAA Tournament.

“I’ve only been around him for 45 minutes, an hour, so far. And I think mentally, we’re in a good place,” said Van Horn. “We went three and three against some really, really good teams on the road. And we did what we needed to do to get where we are today. I hope they take a little time to maybe sit back and realize what a good season that we’ve had. And that we put ourselves in a position to play here as long as we win. But I think the mood’s good. I mean, some of our goals at the beginning of the year were obviously to get to this point and have an opportunity to continue to play in a regional. And here we are.”

With the Razorbacks being one of the regional host teams, they may not have to play a game on the road until the start of the College World Series. All of Van Horn’s team’s hard work in the regular season paid off in a big way, with one of the roads to the College World Series having to go through Fayetteville, AR.

Van Horn’s mental state was easier to read as it was written all over his body language. The Razorbacks’ head coach is excited to play the opening round at home and to be home in general.

“It’s always good to be at home, really. I mean, we’ve been on the road for 11 days straight,” said Van Horn. “And just driving back, once we got in our cars at the airport the other day, it was nice to be here and regroup a little bit. Let these guys have some freedom yesterday, today, and then have team practice the next couple of days. Then a Thursday workout that’s structured time-wise. It’s really good to be able to play a Baum-Walker in front of our fans, who are extremely loyal, and they show up. It ought to be an exciting weekend.”

The Razorbacks had an impressive regular season and finished the year 41-16 and 20-10 in conference play. But teams in the Fayetteville, AR, regional should be concerned with the Razorback’s home record. In 34 all games this season, Arkansas is a staggering 30-4.