The Arkansas Razorbacks (11-6, 0-4 SEC) are officially in must-win territory as they prepare to face the Missouri Tigers (14-3 3-1 SEC) on Saturday at Mizzou Arena.
Led by third-year head coach Dennis Gates, the Tigers are off to a rip-roaring start in the 2024-25 season. Missouri owns wins over teams such as California, Kansas, LSU, Vanderbilt, Florida and others with a team full of veterans.
In SEC play alone, Missouri averages 10 three-point makes per contest, including 11 conversions against No. 5 Florida on Tuesday.
"I think the first thing you talk about is with Missouri is they're well coached," Payne said. "They play 12 players, 11 players, so they're constantly running guys in and out of the game. The last four or five games, they're making right at 10 threes a game and they are leading the nation in free throw attempts.
"They are attacking the basket, as well. So between right at, 10 threes and right at 30, 25, free-throw attempts a game, those two areas are areas of concern. We've got to play defense without fouling, and we got to not allow them to get 10 threes."
If Arkansas wants to notch its first SEC victory, it must flip the script on its rebounding miscues. That begins with extra physicality, according to Payne.
"The mindset of what’s going on before in the rebounding area is, if you don’t hit first, you’re going to get hit," Payne said. "So, you have to go attack that guy that’s coming in to get the offensive rebound. You have to meet him first. He cannot take two steps forward before you go to him. If that happens, you end up under the basket.
"These are some big, strong guys, and they end up getting second and third possessions because of that. And also, our guards, we have a team, we need all five guys crashing the boards. Not just the bigs. Not just three guys, we need all five."
Here's a closer comparison of Arkansas' and Missouri's stats, efficiency ratings, projected lineup for the Tigers and more ahead of Saturday's game, which is set to tip off at 5 p.m. CT on the SEC Network:
