First Scouting Report: At Arkansas, Kentucky will face another desperate foe
READ MORE
Game day: South Carolina 79, No. 6 Kentucky 62
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and South Carolina in Columbia, S.C.
Expand All
A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 6 Kentucky (14-4, 4-2 SEC) will face Arkansas (10-8, 1-4 SEC) on Saturday, Jan. 27, at Bud Walton Arena (seating capacity 19,200) in Fayetteville, Ark.
The game will tip off at 6 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by ESPN.
Before playing Kentucky, coach Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks will play at Mississippi on Wednesday at 9 p.m. (EST) in a game that will be telecast by ESPNU.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Arkansas 34-14.
UK coach John Calipari is 11-7 vs. Arkansas.
Arkansas head man Eric Musselman is 3-2 vs. Kentucky.
Most recent meeting
Antonio Reeves lit up Fayetteville by hitting 12 of 17 shots, 2 of 4 3-pointers and all 11 of his free throws en route to a career-high 37 points as No. 23 Kentucky scored an 88-79 win at Arkansas on March 4, 2023, in the regular-season finale.
Enhancing the impressiveness of Reeves’ performance is that, due to injuries, UK played the game without a true point guard and largely used Jacob Toppin as a “point forward.”
Toppin finished with 21 points, four rebounds and three assists for UK, while Oscar Tshiebwe added 12 points and 13 boards.
The Kentucky victory snapped a three-game losing streak vs. Arkansas.
Power rankings
The NCAA NET rankings have Kentucky No. 18, Arkansas No. 117.
In the Pomeroy Ratings, Kentucky is No. 16 and Arkansas No. 101.
Know your foe
1. Arkansas was picked to finish third, one spot ahead of Kentucky, in the SEC preseason media poll. Other than an 80-75 win over then-No. 7 Duke in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Nov. 29, however, not much has gone right for the Razorbacks.
Not only will the Hogs enter Wednesday night’s game at Mississippi having lost four of five SEC contests, Arkansas has been getting blitzed. All four of the Razorbacks’ league losses have been by double digits; twice, Arkansas has lost by 32.
The Hogs began league play with an 83-51 home loss to Auburn and also took a 90-68 defeat at Florida. Arkansas has also lost at Georgia 76-66 and at home to South Carolina 77-64.
A 78-77 escape vs. Texas A&M is all that kept the Hogs from an 0-5 start to league play.
2. Arkansas does have wins over two of the teams that have beaten Kentucky this season. In addition to the one-point victory over Texas A&M, the Razorbacks also beat UNC Wilmington 106-90 on Dec. 30 at Bud Walton Arena.
UK, of course, lost at Texas A&M 97-92 in overtime and was stunned on Dec. 2 at Rupp Arena by UNC Wilmington, 80-73.
3. Ball-handling and perimeter shooting have been issues for Arkansas. The Razorbacks go into the Mississippi contest making only 32.9% of their 3-point attempts while allowing opponents to make 33.6 from behind the arc.
Meanwhile, Arkansas entered play Wednesday with more turnovers (210) than assists (206). The Razorbacks also have more turnovers than their opponents have committed (210 to 191).
Former Louisville guard El Ellis has started 10 of 18 games for Arkansas and has been a big part of the errant shooting. Ellis is making only 34.8% of his shots overall and only 26.7 (8-of-30) on 3-point tries.
This story was originally published January 23, 2024 at 9:02 PM.
