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FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas hasn’t had much time to lick its wounds from Saturday’s heartbreaking loss.

Just three days after falling to Oklahoma State in the final minute of the game, the Razorbacks are jumping right back into SEC play with a home game against Mississippi State on Tuesday.

It’s their first conference game on a Tuesday after playing on five straight Wednesdays. That means Arkansas will have one less day to prepare for the Bulldogs, but senior Justin Smith thinks the quick turnaround will be good for the team.

“We can just get it out of our mind and focus on another team and focus on another game,” Smith said. “We're going to take a look at (the Oklahoma State) game and get better from it, but having a game so quickly allows us to kind of turn the page really quickly."

Mississippi State comes to Fayetteville with a 10-8 overall record and 4-5 mark in SEC play, but two of its losses - against Dayton and Kentucky - were in double overtime. In their last game, the Bulldogs demolished Iowa State 95-56 to help the SEC win the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

The Razorbacks, meanwhile, are 13-5 overall and 5-4 in SEC play. They are looking to extend a three-game conference winning streak, but will need to snap a six-game losing streak to Mississippi State to do so.

Last year, the Bulldogs beat Arkansas twice. After losing by seven in Starkville, the Razorbacks dropped a heartbreaker on a tip-in with 0.6 seconds remaining inside Bud Walton Arena.

Much like Arkansas, though, Mississippi State is a different team after losing its top four scorers from a year ago - including one-time Arkansas commit Reggie Perry.

Sophomore guards Iverson Molinar and D.J. Stewart Jr. have stepped into those roles for the Bulldogs. They are both averaging 17.6 points, which makes them the SEC’s second-leading scoring duo behind only LSU’s Cameron Thomas and Trendon Watford.

“They’re both really talented and Coach (Ben) Howland uses them really well,” Musselman said. “Both of them can make threes… They both can dribble-drive, they’re both excellent transition scorers. We’ve got to find them in transition.”

Molinar takes only three shots beyond the arc per game, but has made an incredible 51.1 percent of them, while Stewart has made 36.8 percent of his 4.2 three-point attempts per game. They’re both good at getting to the free throw line, too, shooting a combined 78.0 percent on an average of 7.6 attempts.

Arkansas will also have to account for Mississippi State’s size, as starters Abdul Ado - who made the tip-in last season - and Tolu Smith are 6-foot-11 and 6-foot-10, respectively. They are a big reason the Bulldogs lead the SEC and rank 15th nationally with a plus-8.7 rebounding margin.

Mississippi State is strong on the defensive end, as well, limiting opponents to just 65.8 points on 40.7 percent shooting - figures that rank fourth in the conference. Similar to in-state rival Ole Miss, a key for the Bulldogs is playing at a slow pace (302nd in adjusted tempo, per KenPom).

“They control tempo, first of all, which helps their defense, and they help and the keep the lane compact,” Musselman said. “(Howland’s) teams have always been excellent defensive teams that are physical. They do a good job defensive rebounding, so they try to eliminate your second shots.”

That is not how Arkansas likes to play, as it has the 24th-fastest tempo in the country according to KenPom, but Musselman said as long as his team continues to showcase good shot selection - which has improved lately - and share the basketball, he’s confident in their ability to win any kind of game.

“I think that we’ve become flexible enough where if you look at our numbers, we're actually more effective in half-court play than we are in transition, which would probably not add up to what the general perception is,” Musselman said. “Having said that, we would like to get up and down the floor as much as possible.

“We can play a grind-it-out game. In a game against Tennessee, I thought we grinded it out with them well enough for most of the game, so I think our team is flexible enough to kind of play two different ways.”

When it comes to sharing the ball, the Razorbacks will be looking for a much better performance from starting point guard Jalen Tate. He had four turnovers in 25 minutes at Oklahoma State and played even worse than those statistics indicated.

“I think he knows we need more from him than what we got at Oklahoma State,” Musselman said. “He’s been in shooting a lot on his own and he’s played really well for us with the exception of a couple of games. There’s no doubt that the game at Oklahoma State was his worst performance since he’s been here - I think he recognizes that.”

Tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT Tuesday and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.