East Tennessee tonight at Walton

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas did not play its best game on Tuesday night against Morgan State and paid the price with a home loss, but soon after the game finished the Razorbacks turned their attention to another very solid team in East Tennessee State who comes to Bud Walton Arena for a 7 p.m. showdown on Friday, Nov. 27.

The Razorbacks (2-2) got Mike Washington back into a scoring frame of mind against Morgan State as the preseason All-SEC front court player scored 21 points. Coupled with 26 from leading scorer Rotnei Clarke and the Hogs appeared to be on their way to a victory. Unfortunately for the Razorbacks it was a lack of rebounding that did them in against the Bears and Arkansas knows that it must be better to compete with teams seemingly bound for the NCAA Tournament in March.

"We don’t have a lot of time," Arkansas head coach John Pelphrey said following Tuesday’s game. "We have another NCAA team from a year ago coming to play us on Friday. We need to respond and play better."

East Tennessee State (2-3) has struggled out of the blocks this year after a season opening victory over a very good Appalachian State team, the Buccaneers dropped three straight, all on the road, to Chattanooga, Morgan State and No. 16 Louisville. East Tennessee did rebound to take a 77-71 win over the College of Charleston on Wednesday. The Buccaneers are led by Tommy Hubbard who leads the team in scoring (14.5) and rebounding (9.8) The 6-5 junior is playing just over 30 minutes per game and hitting 44 percent from the floor, 50 percent from the arc and 50 percent from the free-throw line.

Friday night’s game is the first of six broadcasts for the Razorbacks on the Razorback Sports Network from ISP. Scott Inman will provided the play-by-play with Jimmy Dykes calling the color. The East Tennessee State game can also be heard across the state of Arkansas on the Razorback Sports Network with Mike Nail and Rick Schaeffer giving the calls. Nail is in his 29th and final season as the play-by-play voice of the Razorbacks.

Looking past the East Tennessee State contest, Arkansas plays on Sunday, Nov. 29 against South Alabama to complete the holiday weekend.