Men’s Basketball – Page 61 – Syndication Server

Instant Analysis: LSU men’s basketball rolls against Arkansas to end losing streak

The Tigers ended a three-game skid with a convincing home win against the struggling Razorbacks.

LSU’s men’s basketball ended a three-game skid in SEC play on Saturday at home, beating Arkansas 95-74 in a morning showdown as the Tigers move to 12-9 overall and 4-4 in league play.

LSU had a red-hot start offensively, hitting 8 of its first 9 shots from the field and five of its first six threes. A lot of that production came from [autotag]Will Baker[/autotag], who was dominant in the half and scored 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting including 3 of 4 from three-point range.

The Tigers stretched out a lead as big as 21 points, but they allowed Arkansas to cut that deficit down before half. The Hogs ended the period on a 6-0 run, but they still faced a 45-30 deficit heading into the locker room.

The second half was more of the same for LSU, which managed to stretch its lead out as wide as 28 points. Baker finished with 25 points, hitting 9 of his 11 shots from the field, while [autotag]Jalen Cook[/autotag] scored 20 and [autotag]Jordan Wright[/autotag] added 13.

The Tigers managed to recapture some momentum heading into a crucial road matchup on Wednesday night against a Tennessee team that currently ranks fifth in the nation.

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‘It’s going to be a rock fight;’ Dana Altman stresses physicality ahead of must-win game vs. UCLA

Oregon Ducks head coach Dana Altman stressed the need for more physicality as the team prepares for a must-win game vs. UCLA.

The Oregon Ducks got a big-time victory over the USC Trojans on the road earlier this week in a must-win game down in Los Angeles. Another must-win game now sits in front of them, though, as they prepare to take on the surging UCLA Bruins on Saturday night in Pauley Pavillion.

While Dana Altman and the Ducks continue to deal with injuries — both Keeshawn Barthelemy and Mookie Cook were ruled to likely be out for the remainder of the season this past week — they are hanging around the NCAA Tournament bubble with 10 games left in the regular season.

Altman knows that Saturday night’s test against the Bruins is going to be a physical one.

“Well, we’ve just got to get tougher,” Altman said on the postgame radio after Oregon’s win on Thursday night. “We’ve got a tough one there and we’re going to have to rebound the ball better. It’s going to be a rock fight, they’re a very physical team. We’re going to have to be a lot more physical than what we were tonight.”

Though UCLA was one of the more disappointing teams in the nation to start the year, they’ve come on strong over the last month, winning four of their last six games.

With the Washington schools coming to Eugene next weekend, this offers a great opportunity for the Ducks to pick up a Quad 2 win on the road, which would bolster their resume a ton going into March.

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Florida firmly in CBS Sports’ bracketology after Kentucky win

The Kentucky win is paying big dividends in CBS Sports’ latest bracketology.

It has been a while but Florida basketball finally cracked CBS Sports’ NCAA Tournament bracketology bubble this week with its upset of the Kentucky Wildcats in Lexington on Wednesday. The victory was the Gators’ fourth in a row — they have gone streaking!

In Jerry Palm’s previous update, the Orange and Blue were in the First Four Out. Now they are firmly in the field with a No. 8 seed in the South region, paired up with the No. 9 St. Mary’s Gaels to open things up in Memphis, Tennessee, along with the top-seeded Houston Cougars and No. 16 Quinnipiac Bobcats.

Looking around the Southeastern Conference, the Tennessee Volunteers (No. 2), Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 3), South Carolina Gamecocks (No. 4), Kentucky (No. 5), Auburn Tigers (No. 7), Ole Miss Rebels (No. 8), Mississippi State Bulldogs (No. 8) and Texas A&M Aggies (No. 11); the Aggies are also among the last four in.

The Gators travel to College Station to take on TAMU on Saturday, Feb. 3, for the first game of the new month. The matchup is set to tip off at 4 p.m. ET and can be watched on ESPN2.

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Gators move up ESPN’s NCAA Tournament bubble heading to TAMU

The Gators are now on the edge of the NCAA Tournament according to Joe Lunardi ahead of the TAMU matchup on Saturday.

The Florida Gators have been on a roll of late, having won four in a row, including an upset of the Kentucky Wildcats on the road. While the team dug itself a deep hole in the major bracketologies with a sluggish start to the Southeastern Conference schedule, it appears that Todd Golden’s gang is finally getting their act together.

In Joe Lunardi’s prior update for ESPN, he had the Orange and Blue on the outside of the bubble, sitting among the “Next Four Out” group for two weeks in a row. Now, Florida is the first in the “First Four Out” category, along with the Washington State Cougars, Gonzaga Bulldogs and Butler Bulldogs.

SEC schools included in the bracket are the Tennessee Volunteers (No. 2), Alabama Crimson Tide (No. 3), Auburn Tigers (No. 4), Kentucky Wildcats (No. 5), South Carolina Gamecocks (No. 6), Ole Miss Rebels (No. 8), Mississippi State Bulldogs (No. 9) and Texas A&M Aggies (No. 10); the Aggies are also among the “Last Four Byes”.

The Gators will travel to College Station to take on Texas A&M on Saturday, Feb. 3, for the first game of the new month. The matchup is set to tip off at 4 p.m. ET and can be watched on ESPN2.

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Game Preview: Florida travels to Texas A&M looking for fifth-straight win

After taking down Kentucky on the road, the Florida Gators are looking to get the job done against Texas A&M to make it five-straight wins.

It took overtime for Florida to pull off a massive upset over Kentucky on the road Wednesday, but now the Gators must regroup and take on the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday in search of a fifth-straight win.

All the momentum is on Florida’s side right now, but the Gators have a habit of playing down once they hit their stride. Todd Golden can’t afford to let his team become complacent after one big one, especially with the regular season starting to wind down.

The Aggies have somewhat underperformed since beginning conference play, splitting a home-and-home with LSU and falling to Ole Miss on Saturday. Still, TAMU won’t be an easy team to beat, especially with a homecourt advantage.

Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. ET on Saturday. Here’s everything you need to know about the game.

Gators an underdog at TAMU per Basketball Power Index prediction

ESPN’s BPI expects a close one in College Station on Saturday, with the Gators coming up just a bit short.

Florida basketball is coming off its biggest win of the season so far — a road win over the Kentucky Wildcats — but it is way too soon to rest on the laurels of the triumph. The Gators now turn their attention to the Texas A&M Aggies, who host the Orange and Blue on Saturday for the first game of the new month.

Using the College Basketball Power Index, ESPN predicts the winner and margin of every matchup in the country. According to Saturday’s projections, Texas A&M has a 66.0% chance to win with an expected 4.4-point margin of victory. The game also earned a matchup quality rating of 87.3, making it one of the top 10 games played that day.

“BPI is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward,” the site reads. “BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is… Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day’s rest and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce season projections.”

The game will be of the Quadrant 1 variety for Florida, which enters the matchup ranked No. 36 in the NET, while TAMU is playing a Quad 2 game while ranked No. 46 coming in.

The Gators travel to College Station to take on the Aggies on Saturday, Feb. 3, for the first game of the new month. The matchup is set to tip off at 4 p.m. ET and can be watched on ESPN2.

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

Bracketology Update: Oregon remains on the bubble despite a big win over USC

Despite a win on the road over the USC Trojans, the Oregon Ducks didn’t move much in ESPN’s Bracketology on Friday.

Thursday night’s win over USC was a big step for the Oregon Ducks, but it didn’t move the needle for them much in the national rankings. As they were in Tuesday’s update, the Ducks are ranked in the “next four out” category of ESPN’s Bracketology in Friday’s update.

USC has had a disappointing season, so it makes sense that a win over the Trojans — despite being on the road — didn’t do much for Oregon’s ranking. The Ducks have several games coming soon that will have a larger impact on their March Madness chances, starting with UCLA on Saturday.

The Bruins of now are not the same team Oregon saw in December. They’ve won four of their last five games, and the only loss was in Tuscon. During that stretch, UCLA has averaged 69.6 points per game and has allowed 63.4 points per game. The Ducks beat the Bruins by just five points earlier this season, and Saturday’s game could be even closer.

One of the most encouraging takeaways from the Ducks’ win over the Trojans was their second-half defense. Excluding the last four minutes, when Oregon allowed an 11-0 USC run, the Ducks defense was superb. Giving up too many points has been the biggest limiting factor for Oregon this year, and if they want to make a push for the tournament, their defense will need to stay strong.

Although Oregon would be ranked much higher in Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology rankings if not for several missteps in the last few weeks, being one of the “next four out” at this point in the season isn’t a bad thing. The Ducks have kept themselves in the mix, and if they can string together some wins to finish the season they’ll be in a good spot.

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Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. talks ahead of Texas A&M matchup

Here’s what Florida’s top guard had to say ahead of the big road matchup in College Station on Saturday.

The month of January was not an easy one for the Florida basketball team, which faced a difficult lineup of competitors to open the Southeastern Conference schedule. The good news is that the Gators finished it off with a signature win over the Kentucky Wildcats on Wednesday, 94-91.

The victory was the first for the program on the road against a top-10 team since 2003, stretching back to a Billy Donovan victory over the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville. It also marked a possible turning point for a squad that has worked hard to create team chemistry after being assembled from players from the transfer portal.

One of those student-athletes is guard Walter Clayton Jr., who has been a key cog in the wheel for the Orange and Blue this season. Take a look at what he had to offer ahead of the next game against the Texas A&M Aggies.

How to watch LSU men’s basketball take on Arkansas on Saturday morning

The Tigers are looking to end a three-game skid against a struggling Razorbacks team.

After dropping their last three games and four of their last five, the Tigers are desperately looking to right the ship and get back in the win column.

LSU (11-9, 3-4 SEC) has a good opportunity to do just that on Saturday as a struggling Arkansas (11-10, 2-6 SEC) team comes to town for a morning matchup at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

The Razorbacks began the year ranked inside the top 15 but have struggled mightily, dropping six of their first seven games in SEC play. A road 91-84 upset win against Missouri ended a three-game skid, but this should be a tougher test for the Hogs.

Here’s everything you know heading into a game LSU absolutely needs to win.

Todd Golden checks in with media ahead of Texas A&M matchup

Florida basketball is coming off a signature win at the Kentucky Wildcats inside Rupp Arena on Wednesday, escaping with a 94-91 overtime victory to enact revenge for the Southeastern Conference loss in Gainesville at the start of January. It was the …

It was the first time the Gators beat a top-10-ranked team on the road since 2003 when Billy Donovan’s boys upset the Mississippi State Bulldogs in Starkville. It was also a much-needed triumph away from the O’Connell Center as [autotag]Todd Golden[/autotag]’s gang has struggled away from home this season.

Ahead of the next matchup with the Texas A&M Aggies, UF’s head coach spoke with the media looking back on the big win while also looking ahead to the next opponent. Here is what he had to offer.