Arkansas Caps Road Slate at Alabama
Game Notes (PDF) | Anderson Presser | Players Presser
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas men’s basketball team (15-14, 8-8 SEC) will close out the road portion of the regular season Wednesday evening, traveling to Alabama (17-11, 8-8 SEC) for an 8 p.m. tip-off with the Crimson Tide at Coleman Coliseum on SEC Network.
Tip-off: Wednesday, March 2 at 8 p.m. CT
Location: Coleman Coliseum (Tuscaloosa, Ala.)
TV: SEC Network | WatchESPN
The Opponent
• Alabama is 17-11 on the year with an 8-8 record in SEC play. The Crimson Tide is coming off a 65-57 victory over rival Auburn on Saturday, which snapped a two-game losing streak. Prior to that, the Crimson Tide was on its hottest run of the season, a five-game win streak that included wins at Florida and LSU and a home victory over Texas A&M. Alabama boasted a 9-3 non-conference record, highlighted by wins against Wichita State and Notre Dame in the 2015 Advocate Invitational in Orlando, Florida over Thanksgiving weekend.
• Senior guard Retin Obasohan leads the Crimson Tide at 17.4 points per game, while adding four rebounds, 2.7 assists and a team-best 1.4 steals. Junior forward Shannon Hale (10.8) and graduate senior guard Arthur Edwards (9.2) also average at or near double figures for Alabama. The team’s leading rebounder averages only 5.9, but the Crimson Tide has six players grabbing four-plus boards per contest. Alabama is third in the SEC, allowing 67.1 points per game and holding opponents to a 32.1 percent mark from beyond the arc.
• Head coach Avery Johnson is in his first season with the Crimson Tide, but brings a 254-186 (.577) NBA coaching record to Tuscaloosa in stints with the Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn/New Jersey Nets. He was the 2006 NBA Coach of the Year, leading the Mavericks to a 60-22 record and an appearance in the NBA Finals. While playing at Southern University, Johnson set the NCAA Division I records for highest single-season assist average (13.3) and highest career assist average (12.0).
#Fastest40 Facts
• The Razorbacks are tied with Vanderbilt for the second-longest winning streak in the league at three games, while SEC leader No. 20 Texas A&M leads the pack with four straight victories.
• Arkansas leads the SEC and ranks No. 9 in the country in three-point field goal percentage at .407 and is on pace to break the school record of .395 set during the 1992-93 season.
• Arkansas and Michigan State are the only high-major programs in the country with 75-plus made three pointers by two different players.
• Arkansas is the only high-major program in the country with three players averaging 15-plus points per game, as Dusty Hannahs (16.2), Moses Kingsley (16.1) and Anthlon Bell (15.9) all rank in the top 11 in the SEC in scoring.
• Over the last four games, the Arkansas bench has a 111-34 edge on its opponent, including a 59-9 advantage over the last two contests.
• Kingsley has four double-doubles in the last five games and is one of four high-major players in the country with 15-plus double-doubles on the year.
• Kingsley is one of four high-major players in the country averaging at least 16.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game this season.
• Jabril Durham has been the ultimate floor general over the last four games, dishing out 25 assists without committing a turnover. During the same stretch he is 7-for-14 from three-point range. His 184 assists this year rank sixth all-time for a single season.
• Anthlon Bell ranks second in the SEC in three-point field goal percentage (.452) and third in three-pointers made with 84. His 84 treys are the ninth-most in school history for a single season.
Series Notes
• Arkansas leads the all-time series 30-28, but the series is tied 24-24 since the Razorbacks joined the SEC for the 1991-92 season.
• Arkansas has five 30-point games against Alabama in the series history, including a 35-point performance by Bobby Portis on Feb. 5, 2014 to set the freshman scoring record. Michael Qualls followed last year and scored 30 against the Crimson Tide.
• The Razorbacks pulled down 51 rebounds against Alabama in 1998, the second-most rebounds in an SEC game in program history.
Up Next
Arkansas returns home Saturday afternoon for Senior Day, hosting South Carolina in the final game of the regular season. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. in Bud Walton Arena.
For more information on Arkansas men’s basketball, follow @RazorbackMBB on Twitter.
