# 1976–77 Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball team

The 1976–77 Arkansas Razorbacks men's basketball team represented the University of Arkansas in the 1976–77 college basketball season. The Razorbacks played their home games in Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It was Eddie Sutton's third season as head coach of the Hogs. The 1976–77 season was the second for Arkansas featuring "The Triplets," the famed trio of Ron Brewer, Marvin Delph, and Sidney Moncrief, who led the team and program into an eighteen-game winning streak and national relevance. The Razorbacks won the Southwest Conference regular season championship with a perfect conference record of 16–0, Arkansas's third and most recent perfect conference season, and an overall record of 26-2. The Razorbacks went on to win the 1977 SWC Conference tournament against Houston, Arkansas's first conference tournament championship after being a semifinalist in the SWC's inaugural basketball tournament the season before. The 1976–77 season was the first of six times that the Hogs would capture both the regular season and tournament titles in the SWC.
The Razorbacks clinched their bid to the NCAA tournament with their SWC Tournament victory, guaranteeing Arkansas's fifth appearance in the tournament overall and first since 1958. The Hogs were upset by Wake Forest in the first round of the tournament, bringing a disappointing end to a historic season.
Arkansas entered the AP Poll at #19 on December 13, 1976, the first time the Hogs were ranked since 1958. The Razorbacks had only been ranked for a cumulative total of four weeks prior to this season, but would remain ranked for the rest of the season, including finishing ranked for the first time in school history, coming in at #19 after spending fourteen weeks in the polls and reaching a peak ranking of #6 on February 21, 1977.
Guard Ron Brewer was named a Helms All-American, as well as picking up First-Team All-SWC honors. Guard Sidney Moncrief garnered Honorable Mention All-American recognition from the AP and The Sporting News, while also being recognized as a First-Team All-SWC player. Forward Marvin Delph joined Brewer and Moncrief on the All-SWC First Team.
The team featured future Arkansas football head coach, Houston Dale Nutt Jr., a freshman guard from Little Rock Central High School.

## Schedule and results

Schedule retrieved from HogStats.com.
| Date time, TV | Rank$^#$ | Opponent$^#$ | Result | Record | Site city, state |
| Exhibition ||||||
| November 10, 1976 | | Brazil | W 97–69 | 0–0 | Pine Bluff Convention Center Pine Bluff, Arkansas |
| Regular season ||||||
| November 27, 1976* | | Air Force | W 72–54 | 1–0 | Barton Coliseum Little Rock, Arkansas |
| November 29, 1976* | | Cal State East Bay | W 89–59 | 2–0 | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| December 1, 1976* | | at Southwest Missouri State College | W 72–71 | 3–0 | Hammons Student Center Springfield, Missouri |
| December 4, 1976* | | Southern Colorado State College | W 91–43 | 4–0 | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| December 11, 1976* | | Oklahoma City | W 71–60 | 5–0 | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| December 18, 1976* | No. 19 | at Kansas | W 67–63 | 6–0 | Allen Fieldhouse Lawrence, Kansas |
| December 20, 1976* | No. 19 | Kansas State | W 80–65 | 7–0 | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| December 23, 1976* | No. 18 | at Tulsa | W 81–66 | 8–0 | Tulsa Convention Center Tulsa, Oklahoma |
| December 30, 1976* | No. 17 | Memphis State | L 62–69 | 8–1 | Barton Coliseum Little Rock, Arkansas |
| January 4, 1977 | No. 18 | at Texas Tech | W 41–38 | 9–1 (1–0) | Lubbock Municipal Coliseum Lubbock, Texas |
| January 8, 1977 | No. 18 | Houston | W 81–70 | 10–1 (2–0) | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| January 10, 1977 | No. 18 | Texas Tech | W 60–53 | 11–1 (3–0) | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| January 15, 1977 | No. 17 | at Rice | W 72–45 | 12–1 (4–0) | Tudor Fieldhouse Houston, Texas |
| January 18, 1977 | No. 17 | TCU | W 62–45 | 13–1 (5–0) | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| January 22, 1977 | No. 17 | at Texas | W 86–58 | 14–1 (6–0) | Gregory Gymnasium Austin, Texas |
| January 24, 1977 | No. 17 | Texas A&M | W 72–58 | 15–1 (7–0) | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| January 27, 1977 | No. 15 | at SMU | W 77–59 | 16–1 (8–0) | Moody Coliseum Dallas, Texas |
| January 29, 1977 | No. 15 | at Baylor | W 68–59 | 17–1 (9–0) | Heart O' Texas Fair Coliseum Waco, Texas |
| February 2, 1977 | No. 14 | SMU | W 81–58 | 18–1 (10–0) | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| February 5, 1977 | No. 14 | at Houston | W 82–80 | 19–1 (11–0) | Hofheinz Pavilion Houston, Texas |
| February 7, 1977* | No. 14 | at Tulane | W 76–73 | 20–1 (11–0) | Devlin Fieldhouse New Orleans, Louisiana |
| February 10, 1977 | No. 13 | Baylor | W 77–57 | 21–1 (12–0) | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| February 12, 1977 | No. 11 | Rice | W 78–51 | 22–1 (13–0) | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| February 15, 1977 | No. 11 | at TCU | W 79–64 | 23–1 (14–0) | Daniel-Meyer Coliseum Fort Worth, Texas |
| February 19, 1977 | No. 11 | Texas | W 73–61 | 24–1 (15–0) | Barnhill Arena Fayetteville, Arkansas |
| February 22, 1977 | No. 6 | at Texas A&M | W 63–62 | 25–1 (16–0) | G. Rollie White Coliseum College Station, Texas |
| SWC tournament ||||||
| March 5, 1977* | No. 6 | vs. Houston Championship | W 84–70 | 26–1 (16–0) | The Summit Houston, Texas |
| NCAA tournament ||||||
| March 12, 1977* | No. 8 | vs. Wake Forest First Round | L 80–86 | 26–2 (16–0) | Lloyd Noble Center Norman, Oklahoma |
| *Non-conference game. $^#$Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Central Time. ||||||