It will be a contrast of styles — and maybe a battle of wills — when Ole Miss and Arkansas square off tonight at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.
Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
What viewers will see is one team — Arkansas — that loves to push pace and can score in a variety of ways against another — Ole Miss — that has been playing suffocating team defense of late.
Arkansas scores and gets scored on. Ole Miss has trouble scoring and can be quite stingy on defense. It’s strength versus strength, and, to some extent, weakness versus weakness when the Rebels and Razorbacks meet.
“We’re not a team that is going out there and putting up huge numbers offensively,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. “That’s kind of where we are right now. We work on that every day, trying to tinker with offense, trying to get cheap baskets in transition. We’ve got to hang our hat on it and we’ve got to do it against a really good offensive team. The first thing is that I think our guys are starting to believe in our defense and that sometimes we’re going to have to win games maybe with low scores right now. It’s not us not trying to score. It’s just kind of who we are at this point.”
Ole Miss (8-6 overall, 3-4 in the Southeastern Conference) is on a two-game winning streak in which the Rebels held two league opponents — Mississippi State and Texas A&M — to an average of 48 points per game.
Arkansas (12-4, 4-4) is also on a two-game winning streak, having defeated Auburn and Vanderbilt last week. The Razorbacks are ninth nationally in scoring, but in league play, Arkansas has scored 640 points (80.0 points per game) while also giving up 640 points.
“They can score in bunches, especially at home,” Davis said. “And I think you know when you do this, live-ball turnovers are critical when you play Arkansas. Any game, but especially those guys off turnovers, they’re very fast and it impacts the game. Defense goes right to offense. You know we’re trying to get cheap baskets offensively. So we’re going to try to play fast in transition. But we’ve got to kind of play at both ends of the clock. We’ve got to play early and then hopefully kind of play 20 to 30 and you know, I do, I think tempo can be a big factor.”
It’s a huge opportunity for Ole Miss. A win at Bud Walton would be a Quadrant 1 victory for Ole Miss. The Rebels, who lost twice in the non-SEC portion of the schedule and are a couple of weeks removed from a devastating stretch that included late losses at Florida and at home against Georgia, need resume-building victories to get back into the NCAA Tournament discussion.
“I thought Arkansas’ comeback against Auburn was a really good win for them. Auburn is a much different team with (Sharife) Cooper. And the way they played in the second half was critical. They played very good against Vanderbilt.
“We’re a team that, we’re up nine at Florida with 6 1/2 minutes to go and get beat. It was a one-possession game against Georgia. We’re up seven against Wichita State at home and get beat. So we haven’t closed out some close games. So it was critical for us, especially starting off with our arch-rival, Mississippi State, which is a huge game for us in our state.
“I think both teams are playing well. We could sure make a ton more improvement. I bet you (Arkansas coach) Eric (Musselman) can say the same thing. But I’m impressed with Arkansas.”
Five Razorbacks average double figures led by freshman guard Moses Moody (17.3 ppg). JD Notae (13.7 ppg) comes off the bench to rank second on the team in scoring, while Desi Sills (11.7 ppg), Jalen Tate (11.5 ppg) and Justin Smith (10.9 ppg) crack double digits as well.
“I think there’s two teams that are playing well tomorrow night in a big game,” Davis said. “So it’s a critical game for us and it’s a great opportunity for both teams.”
