Arkansas @ Missouri preview
Mizzou Arena
Last Meeting ( Jan 2, 2021 ) Missouri 81, Arkansas 68
Arkansas has won five straight Southeastern Conference games for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
The Razorbacks (15-5, 7-4 SEC) are coming off of an 81-80 victory at Kentucky that bolstered their NCAA Tournament credentials.
Meanwhile, Missouri (13-4, 6-4) will try to regroup after absorbing an 80-59 loss at Ole Miss.
Missouri won 81-68 at Arkansas earlier this season. But momentum may favor the Razorbacks in the rematch in Columbia, Mo.
"We're going to continue this roll," Arkansas guard Davonte Davis said. "We're going to go into Missouri and execute down the stretch, execute our plays, do what we have to do on defense and just play our keys and do our job and come out of Missouri with a win for the sixth game in a row."
The Razorbacks have five players who average in double figures, led by Moses Moody's 16.3 points per game. Recently, 7-foot-3, 243-pound center Connor Vanover has played well.
He scored 25 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked five shots in his last two games. Vanover scored 12 points in 17 minutes at Kentucky.
"Coming off a good game, Connor Vanover, we expected that from him," Davis said. "He did what we expected. He scored and we dropped the ball off to him, and he finished the dunks. And that's all we needed."
Missouri had second-half collapses in its last two games. The Tigers held off Alabama 68-65 Saturday, but Wednesday's game at Ole Miss slipped away.
The Rebels outscored Missouri 38-22 in the final 20 minutes.
"We're a team with a defensive mindset," Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said. "You have to have that, especially going on the road. You can get away with certain things at home, but you will pay for them on the road. We paid for it tonight."
Offensively, the Tigers need center Jeremiah Tilmon and guard Xavier Pinson back on track. Tilmon scored 23 points in his last three games after scoring 54 points in the two games prior to that slump. He scored six points at Mississippi and missed 4-of-6 free throws.
"I think him missing some free throws probably slowed him up as far as him being aggressive in posting," Martin said. "You gotta still post aggressively."
After scoring a combined 50 points in victories over TCU and Kentucky, Pinson scored just 15 points in the last two games.
"He didn't attack the rim at all," Martin said of Pinson. "He wasn't aggressive at the rim, making plays. And in a lot of ways, when he's not doing that, we become stagnant.
"If he's not around the rim and he's taking tough twos or tough threes, then everybody kind of stands and kind of goes from there."
--Field Level Media