The Arkansas Razorbacks (11-3, 0-1 SEC) can bounce back if they defeat the No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels (12-2, 1-0 SEC) on Wednesday at Bud Walton Arena.
Led by second-year head coach Chris Beard, the Rebels are off to a solid start to the 2024-25 season. Ole Miss owns wins over teams such as BYU, Purdue, Louisville, Georgia and others with a veteran-filled squad. Ole Miss is coming off a 20-12 (7-11 SEC) overall season that saw it miss the NCAA Tournament.
"Ole Miss is one of those teams that is really tough," associate head coach Chin Coleman said Tuesday. "They recruit to their system. Another game in which we’re going to have to be more physical than them. We’re going to have to obviously do a better job on the offensive glass. They’re systemic in terms of their motion and everybody is a weapon. They can go one-on-one from one through five. So they have a balanced attack in terms of their offense because of their style of play.
"So it’s going to be a challenge for us. But for me and for us as a staff and our team, no matter whether you win or you lose it’s always about our response. So I’m excited about our response. I was excited about our response in our first possession of practice. I’m equally excited for our first possession of practice today and so on and so forth. Just a challenge. Another challenge. We’ve got to be more prepared for this one than we were the last time out."
A major storyline entering this game is the chess-move battle between John Calipari and Beard, who was reportedly one of Arkansas' top head coach candidates to replace Eric Musselman during the offseason.
"(Beard's) been running that motion since Texas Tech," Coleman said. "Probably got a little bit of that from the late great Bobby Knight. That motion is unpredictable. The freedom of movement, cutting, screening. It’s hard to scheme against. It’s hard to scout. It’s hard to put a scout team through that. There is no absolute. When you have a random based offense that you’ve got to guard the whole game, you’ve got to trust your rules. You’ve got to be connected.
"You can't break. You’ve got to be alert. You’ve got to know you are going to be screened, but at the same time you’ve got to watch the ball because here comes a guy driving. They’ve got playmakers all over the floor with one through five. Their fives are like fours. Their fours are like threes. When you have multiple guys on the floor that can dribble, pass and shoot, it’s tough to defend against."
After a non-conference schedule filled with middling crowds, Coleman said he's ready for Arkansas fans to unleash Bud Walton Arena into its full form for the SEC home opener.
"We need the fans to support the Razorbacks the way that they’ve supported them, what we’ve seen when we were with the opposing team," Coleman said. "Now we’re family. We’re Razorbacks. We wanted it to feel the way it’s felt when we’ve come in here as an opposer, as the enemy. We need the building rocking. We need the building turned all the way up to help our men feed off that energy.
"I’ve seen it before. I’ve witnessed it before, where you can’t even call out… I’m normally one of the loudest persons in the building on the sidelines. Our guys hear me when I scream out different calls and when I scream out different schematics. Everybody hears me. I have been in this building before where I have not been heard, so that is what I need for that building, and what we need for that building to feel like."
Here's a closer comparison of Arkansas' and Ole Miss' stats, efficiency ratings, projected lineup for the Rebels and more ahead of Wednesday's game, which is set to tipoff at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2:
