KSR Gameday: Kentucky Travels to No. 18 Arkansas
On the penultimate Saturday of the college basketball regular season, Kentucky will face one of its most daunting challenges to date. The sixth-ranked Wildcats will play No. 18 Arkansas in a sold out t-shirt night at Bud Walton Arena. The action tips off at 2 pm ET on CBS.
The Razorbacks have only lost once Since Jan. 8, with wins at home against Tennessee and No. 1 Auburn. JD Notae is the SEC’s second-leading scorer (18.7 ppg.) and Jaylin Williams ranks second in the SEC in rebounds (9.7 per game) with 10 double-doubles on the season. They have enough weapons to take out the Cats if they can maintain their composure, unlike UK’s last trip to Fayetteville in 2020.
“We have talked about that game this year and some of our big games with big crowds and the fact that, you know what, we’ve got to play for 40 minutes,” said head coach Eric Musselman. “We know there’s going to be scoring runs. The game’s never over and it’s going to be the case on Saturday as well.”
Kentucky will likely once again be without all of its weapons. The Wildcats took down two NCAA Tournament teams without Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington available. Asking the Cats to do it again on the road might be too tall of a task to conquer. Hopefully, at least one of the injured star guards will return, but there was no indication entering the game that either will be ready to roll Saturday afternoon. We’ll find out soon enough if Kentucky will have the firepower to turn its roadkill mentality into a win at Bud Walton.
Calling the Hogs on Calipari
Coach Cal received a warm welcome from Razorback fans Friday night.
Arkansas is Ready to NOT Storm the Court
If Kentucky’s coming to town, students are getting free t-shirts. This is nothing new. What is different is that this is a bribe to keep the students from storming the court. More than 24 hours prior to tip-off, Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek asked the Razorbacks not to storm the court if they defeat Kentucky. Arkansas is pre-planning its Kentucky victory celebration. What could go wrong?
What makes this request from Yurachek even funnier? Barstool Sports’ Caleb Pressley and Rone are the “Storm Chasers.” Entering year three, they travel from one college basketball game to the next with the hopes of being front and center to storm the court. Now it’s Kentucky’s job to eliminate the possibility of a controversial court storming. All they have to do is win.
TV, Radio Info
It’s a CBS Saturday, the perfect March Madness primer. Brad Nessler and Pete Gillen will be on the call when the game at Bud Walton Arena tips off at 2 pm ET. If you can’t watch it, you can listen in a variety of ways:
- AM: 840 WHAS, 630 WLAP
- FM: 98.1 WBUL
- Satellite: XM 191, Sirius 138, SXM App: 962
- Online: iHeart Radio
The KSR Pregame Show with Matt and Drew will begin at 11:30 am ET on 630 WLAP and iHeart Radio. Can’t wait around any longer? You can also hear some basketball chatter with Jack Pilgrim on Sources Say.
Vegas, KenPom Prediction
The Wildcats opened as a two-point underdog, but Arkansas is taking all of the money. In some places you can find the line at UK +3. Kentucky is 2-4 straight up and against the spread as an underdog this year. The total is 147.5. KenPom believes the line should be flipped, predicting a 76-73 Kentucky win. However, that optimistic projection does not factor in UK’s potential injury absences.
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The Last Time Kentucky Played at Arkansas
The 2020 Wildcats went to Bud Walton and turned a John Calipari ejection into a 17-2 run. It’s one of the best games I have ever attended. My ears could not hear whatsoever, until the Cats silenced the crowd with a 73-66 win. Kentucky has not lost at Bud Walton since the Michael Qualls overtime put-back dunk in 2014. The Wildcats had won eight straight until last year’s loss at Rupp Arena.
Big Day for SEC Tournament Seeding
Today could be an early preview of the SEC Tournament semifinals. After the second and third place teams play in Arkansas, first-place Auburn travels to fourth-place Tennessee at 4 pm on ESPN. The results of today’s games will paint a clearer picture of what the bracket will look like in Tampa. Tyler Thompson lays out some of the possible seeding scenarios for UK’s final three games of the regular season, while I will simply share with you some of the other big games in action today.
- No. 4 Purdue at Michigan State | Noon | ESPN
- Oklahoma State at Oklahoma | Noon | ESPN
- Butler at Marquette | 1 pm | Fox
- No. 12 UCLA at Oregon State | 4 pm | CBS
- No. 7 Duke at Syracuse | 6 pm | ESPN
- No. 13 Wisconsin at Rutgers | 6 pm | BTN
- No. 5 Kansas at No. 10 Baylor | 8 pm | ESPN
- No. 1 Gonzaga at No. 23 Saint Mary’s | 10 pm | ESPN
Kentucky has an Offensive Coordinator
Less than a week after Liam Coen agreed to become the Rams offensive coordinator, Mark Stoops has found his successor. We knew he was looking for someone from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree. We did not know he would recruit a coach Shanahan likes so much, he hired him three times. 49ers QB coach Rich Scangarello will be taking his talents to Lexington this spring.
A pleasant surprise, Scangarello received rave reviews, clearly standing out among the other candidates. “Dude is a QB guru. I can’t believe we got him,” one assistant told Matt Jones. “It’s going to be unbelievable.” UK quickly made the announcement official. The press releases always include canned comments from the head coach, but this time the words sound like they came directly from Mark Stoops.
“When the Rams hired Liam Coen, I knew I wanted to find a replacement that would continue what we’ve built here. We just hired Zach Yenser from the 49ers to coach the offensive line and having both Rich and Zach, who come from the same Shanahan tree, McVay tree and Coen tree, not only bring a wealth of experience but they also help keep continuity,” Stoops said. “It’s a seamless transition.”
- Everything you need to know about Rich Scangarello, from Adam Luckett
- Freddie Maggard explains why Continuity was Key in hiring process
- NEW OL coach Zach Yenser shares insight into offense with Jack Pilgrim
Freddie, Luckett, Max and more folks joined me on Twitter Spaces live Friday afternoon to discuss the addition. You can’t hear it on a KSR podcast feed, but you can listen to all 43 minutes on Twitter by clicking on the link below.
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