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Arkansas entered Wednesday night’s showdown with Alabama as the winner of seven straight SEC games – four of them in double digits, one of them over nationally-ranked Missouri . It was enough to push the Razorbacks into second place in the league standings. But the Crimson Tide obviously presented a different challenge. It was the same team, after all, that beat Arkansas by 31 points last month.
Would this time be better?
Would it be okay?
The responses have been overwhelming – Yes and Damn yeah. The result was a convincing 81-66 victory that improved Arkansas to 10-4 in the SEC and kept Alabama off, at least for a few days, their first regular-season league title since 2002.
“I would say this team is playing basketball really well,” Arkansas coach Eric Musselman said.
I would say he is right.
The Razorbacks attacked from the jump and enjoyed a rare (but real) edge on the pitch in this pandemic that has limited the number of fans in arenas from coast to coast. They shot 46.3 percent from the field against an Alabama team that ranks fourth nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency. And they outscored the Crimson Tide 27-3 on the free throw line, which says as much about the different styles of play as anything else.
Yes, that’s a big gap.
But when one team (Alabama) throws 48% of their field shooting attempts beyond the arc, where fouls are rare, and the other team (Arkansas) primarily attacks, a gap in the attempts of free throws is to be expected. Either way, focusing too much on this is to lose sight of the monster Musselman created. The Razorbacks started the season 54th overall at KenPom. They are now 16th. And it’s worth noting that Arkansas are 17-2 this season with Justin Smith in the roster, just 1-3 without him – the point is, the Hogs are a different team when the Indiana move. is in good health, and that he is healthy and average. 36.4 minutes per fight during Arkansas’ five-game winning streak.
Arkansas is in 14th place in CBS Sports’ updated top 25 and 1 daily college basketball rankings. Alabama fell to 7th place. The Crimson Tide and Razorbacks remain first and second in the SEC rankings, respectively. Arkansas is back from two games in the loss column. Each team still has two games on their regular season schedule.
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Thursday’s Top 25 and 1 ranking
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