Arkansas Looks for Revenge against No. 5 Aggies
Game Notes (PDF) | Mike Anderson Press Conference
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The upset-minded Arkansas men’s basketball team (9-10, 3-4) looks to get back on track Wednesday evening, welcoming No. 5 Texas A&M (17-2, 7-0) to town for a 6 p.m. tip-off in Bud Walton Arena on ESPNU.
Tip-off: Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 6 p.m. CT
Location: Bud Walton Arena (Fayetteville, Ark.)
TV: ESPNU
Tickets: Click Here
The Opponent
• The Aggies are 17-2 on the year with a 7-0 record in SEC play. Texas A&M is the first SEC opponent the Razorbacks will face for the second time. Now at No. 5 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll, Texas A&M is on a 10-game win streak and the Aggies are the only SEC team undefeated in conference play. When Arkansas and Texas A&M played on Jan. 3, the Aggies defeated the Razorbacks 92-69. Four Arkansas players reached double figures, led by Anthlon Bell’s 16 points.
• Senior swing forward Jalen Jones leads the team with 17.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. Two other Aggies, senior guard Danuel House (15.3) and freshman forward Tyler Davis (11.2), also average double figures in scoring. Texas A&M leads the SEC with 19 assists per game, a 63.7-point scoring defense and a plus-14.6-point scoring margin. The Aggies rank third in the conference in steals, averaging a plus-four turnover margin.
• Head coach Billy Kennedy is in his fifth season at Texas A&M, with a record of 88-63 (.582) in four-plus seasons. Before coming to College Station, Kennedy was the head coach at Murray State, leading the Racers to back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) titles and a combined 54-14 record in 2010 and 2011; he was also named OVC Coach of the Year in both seasons. In 17-plus seasons as a head coach, Kennedy boasts a 299-242 (.552) record, including stops at Southeastern Louisiana for six years and Centenary for two.
#Fastest40 Facts
• Arkansas last played an Associated Press Top 5 team in Bud Walton Arena on Feb. 5, 2013, defeating No. 2 Florida 80-69.
• Arkansas is hosting back-to-back ranked opponents in BWA for the first time since the 2013-14 season when it lost to No. 10 Florida and defeated No. 13 Kentucky.
• The Razorbacks have seen six of their 10 losses come by four points or fewer, including three of those in overtime. In those six losses, Arkansas has had the lead or the game was tied in the final 2:24 of regulation.
• Dusty Hannahs has scored 20-plus points in consecutive games for the third time this season after putting up 20 against Kentucky and 24 at Georgia. He has reached the 20-point mark in four of the last five games and a team-best nine times this year.
• Jabril Durham has five-plus assists in 17 straight games, the longest such streak by an Arkansas player since joining the SEC in 1991-92. His 7.2 assists per game lead the league and rank No. 6 in the country.
• The Razorbacks are No. 5 in the country in three-point field goal percentage at .434, sitting only behind Oklahoma, Saint Mary’s, Indiana and Kansas.
• Moses Kingsley got back to his old double-double ways Saturday in Athens, scoring 11 points and adding 10 boards for his ninth double-double of the season. Kingsley and LSU’s Ben Simmons are the only players in the SEC with more than eight double-doubles this year.
• Kingsley has scored in double figures in all 19 games this season and is one of 14 players in the country with four-plus blocks in six or more games this season. He leads the SEC and ranks No. 11 nationally with 51 blocks on the year.
Up Next
Arkansas goes right back to work Saturday, hosting Texas Tech as part of the Big12/SEC Challenge. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
For more information on Arkansas men’s basketball, follow @RazorbackMBB on Twitter.
