games of the regular season. This led to an NIT berth and resulted in a loss to Syracuse in the first round 79–73, which was South Alabama's sixth straight loss to end the season. South Alabama finished the year with a 20–12 record, giving Pelphrey an overall record of 80–67 with the Jags. Arkansas Pelphrey was announced as the new head coach of the University of Arkansas basketball team at a press conference on Monday, April 9, 2007, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Pelphrey replaced Stan Heath, whose tenure ended with the University of Arkansas on March 26, 2007. The Razorbacks began the season ranked # 19, but fell out of the top 25 after losing their third game of the season to unranked Providence. Arkansas went on to win six consecutive games to improve to 8–1, before losing to the Oklahoma Sooners. They finished the nonconference season 11–3, highlighted by wins over Missouri and Baylor. The Hogs won their first two conference games against Auburn and Alabama, before losing their next two to South Carolina and Georgia. Pelphrey's Razorback team then responded with back-to-back home wins against two ranked opponents, defeating Mississippi State and also Florida, coached by one of his mentors and dear friend, Billy Donovan. The Razorbacks also handed a loss to ranked Vanderbilt along the way. Arkansas finished the SEC regular season with a 9–7 record. The Hogs defeated Vanderbilt (then ranked 18th nationally) again in the 2008 SEC tournament. They followed this up with arguably their biggest victory of the season, a 92–91 win over #4 Tennessee in the tourney semifinals. The Hogs lost in the championship game to underdog Georgia, but rebounded to defeat Indiana 86–72 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. It was the Razorbacks' first NCAA tourney victory since 1999. The Razorbacks were eliminated by overall #1 seed North Carolina in the second round. On December 30, 2008, Pelphrey earned his biggest upset as coach of the Razorbacks up until that point by beating #4 ranked Oklahoma in Bud Walton Arena, 96–88. On January 6, 2009, Pelphrey followed that victory up with a huge win over one of Arkansas' archrivals from its Southwest Conference days, the #7 ranked Texas Longhorns, 67–61. However, after those wins, Pelphrey's season rapidly went downhill as the Razorbacks went on to a last place finish in the SEC West with a 2–14 record and an overall final