Texas A&M @ Arkansas preview
Bud Walton Arena
Last Meeting ( Mar 7, 2020 ) Arkansas 69, Texas A&M 77
Arkansas already has wrapped up second place and a bye to the quarterfinals of next week's Southeastern Conference Tournament, but the Razorbacks will be looking to keep their momentum rolling when they host Texas A&M on Saturday at Fayetteville, Ark.
The No. 12 Razorbacks (20-5, 12-4 SEC) were unbeaten in February and haven't lost in league play since dropping back-to-back road outings at LSU and Alabama in mid-January.
Their 101-73 rout of South Carolina at Columbia, S.C., on Tuesday was their 10th consecutive win in SEC play, tying the program record set by the Hogs' 1994 national championship team.
Coach Eric Musselman credits his team's get-down-to-business approach for the success.
"We stunk for two games this year and figured out a way to put those two games behind us," he said after the win at South Carolina. "And we've got to put this game behind us and get ready for Texas A&M."
Arkansas had three players with more than 20 points each against the Gamecocks and a fourth with 15. Freshman Moses Moody matched his career highs in points (28), field goals (10) and 3-pointers (four) and graduate transfer Justin Smith tied his career high with 22. Junior JD Notae scored 21 points for a career high against an SEC foe and junior Desi Sills added the 15 in tying a career high with five 3-pointers.
All three are scoring in double figures for the season with Moody leading with a 17.0 average.
"He just opens up the floor for us so much," Musselman said of Moody. "He never really takes a bad shot. It's hard for a player to go 10-of-15 from the field."
Notae broke out of a shooting slump (28-of-94, 29.8 percent) the previous 11 games with a 9-of-16 performance. He also had a team-high five assists.
"He's played great," Musselman said. "We've been able to send him a lot of clips, and I think he understood that we wanted him to have a little bit better shot selection, and we wanted him to share the ball a little bit more."
COVID-19 issues have ravaged Texas A&M's season. The Aggies (8-8, 2-7 SEC) have played the fewest games of any SEC team with Wednesday night's 63-57 loss to Mississippi State ending a streak of eight consecutive postponements.
"We've only had 10 guys eligible to practice since Feb. 1," Aggies coach Buzz Williams said. "I just thought the effort they gave, the attitude in which they played, just incredibly thankful for the resilience they showed."
Despite the layoff, the Aggies had a season-low five turnovers. Senior Savion Flagg scored 12 points to become the 18th Aggie with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds, and Emanuel Miller recorded his fifth double-double of the abbreviated season with 24 points and a season-high 13 rebounds.
--Field Level Media