Arkansas basketball may be one of the hotter teams in the country over the last month. Saturday in Bud Walton Arena, though, one just as dynamic of late visits Fayetteville.
ESPN’s Basketball Power Index gives the Razorbacks only a 40 percent chance of beating Tennessee on Saturday afternoon. For those keeping track, those are longer odds than the BPI gave Arkansas to beat then-No. 1 Auburn. That’s how hot the Volunteers are lately.
No. 16 Tennessee has lost just once in the last month-plus, a one-point defeat at the hands of Texas in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in early January. Most recently, the Vols handled then-No. 4 Kentucky in Knoxville by double-digits.
But it isn’t as though Arkansas comes in slouching. In fact, the Hogs have just one loss in the last month, too. Alabama beat Arkansas by just a single point last week in Tuscaloosa. Other than that, the Razorbacks most recent loss came January 8 against Texas A&M.
The winner could stake claim as the SEC’s best team, as such, with Arkansas dispatching Auburn and Tennessee dispatching Kentucky. The loser won’t drop too far in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament selection committee, either.
In other words, get ready for a crackerjack in the Basketball Palace of Mid America.