Arkansas will play the second of two straight matchups against in-state foes tonight. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the game...
No. 10 Arkansas (7-0) vs. Little Rock (4-4)
The Basics
Location: Bud Walton Arena (Fayetteville, Ark.)
Tip off: 3 p.m. CT
How to Watch/Listen
TV: SEC Network (link to online stream)
Radio: Razorback Sports Network (TuneIn / Razorback Gameday App)
Sirius/XM/internet: 138/191/962
Projections
-- Vegas spread: Arkansas, -27.5
-- O/U: 147.5
-- ESPN BPI: Arkansas has 97.0% chance to win, favored by 25.1
-- Bart Torvik: Arkansas has 98% chance to win, favored by 23.2 (proj. score: 84-61)
Scouting Report
~Coached by former Arkansas great and NBA player Darrell Walker, Little Rock won the Sun Belt regular-season title in 2019-20, but regressed to an 11-14 record last year. Now in Year 4 under Walker, the Trojans were picked to finish eighth out of 12 teams by the conference's coaches.
~Half of Little Rock's wins have come against non-NCAA teams. Its two Division I wins were a three-point home win over Southern Illinois and a seven-point neutral-site win over Northern Illinois. The Trojans' four losses have been by an average of 20.5 points, including a 31-point blowout at Colorado State on Wednesday.
~Injuries have plagued Little Rock's season so far. Star Nikola Maric has missed the last two games, while guards Alsean Evans and CJ White also missed the Colorado State game and forward DeAntoni Gordon had to leave the game with an injury.
~When healthy, Maric is the Trojans' best player. He leads the team in scoring (12.8 ppg), rebounding (6.5 rpg) and assists (3.0 apg) in the six games he's played. A senior from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Maric is 6-foot-10, 250-pound forward who has started 62 games and averaged 11.5 points over his career at Little Rock.
~White was one of four players head coach Eric Musselman singled out as excellent shooters Arkansas will have to try to limit. The other four are Marko Andric, Kevin Osawe and Jovan Stulic. As a team, though, Little Rock is shooting only 29.9 percent from beyond the arc.
~Taking care of the ball has been a focus of Musselman all week and it'll be even more important Saturday because the Trojans are top-50 nationally in forcing turnovers (17.1 per game).
Quotable
"Certainly my comfort level with Coach Walker at Little Rock, let’s face it, he’s one of the greatest players in the history of this University of Arkansas program. If he wants to bring his team to Fayetteville to play, we owe (that to him) — like it’s non-negotiable. That should happen because Coach Walker meant so much to the history of Razorback basketball." - head coach Eric Musselman
