‘ Hump’ not seen as road obstacle
STARKVILLE, Miss. — If the Arkansas Razorbacks are to win another game away from Walton Arena this season to go along with their 9461 victory at Missouri three weeks ago, tonight may be their best shot.
Arkansas is playing at Mississippi State — a team the Razorbacks have grown accustomed to beating and one that is struggling to win at home.
The Razorbacks have a five- game winning streak against the Bulldogs, and that includes two victories at Humphrey Coliseum, where the teams meet at 8 tonight.
Mississippi State ( 9- 13, 2- 8 SEC) is 6- 4 at home, but 1- 3 in conference games. The Bulldogs’ only home SEC victory is against Ole Miss along with losses to Texas A& M, Tennessee and Alabama be a combined eight points.
The Vols’ and Crimson Tide’s only SEC road victories have been at Mississippi State.
An 82- 80 overtime loss to Alabama last Tuesday night was especially frustrating for the Bulldogs, who couldn’t hold a seven- point lead with less than five minutes left in overtime.
“It’s been tough for us,” Bulldogs Coach Ben Howland said. “We’ve got to find
a way to get over that hump in those close home games.”
The Razorbacks ( 12- 11, 5- 5) can relate to suffering close losses, but theirs have been away from home.
Arkansas is 1- 9 in games played somewhere other than Fayetteville, including 1- 6 in road games.
Seven of the Razorbacks’ losses away from home have been by four or fewer points with overtime defeats at Dayton, against Mercer in North Little Rock and at Georgia.
“We’ve just got to finish,” Arkansas junior guard Manny Watkins said. “We’re there every single game, plays away.
“We just have to bring what we do here on the road, and I’m confident we will. We’ve worked too hard.”
All the close losses could become discouraging for a team, but Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said he’s encouraged by the Razorbacks’ attitude.
“It’s easy with those close losses that your confidence or your play goes the other direction, but I think our guys are still coming in with the same mind- set of putting themselves in position to
win,” Anderson said. “Now, if we can cut out the mental errors.”
Arkansas figures to be catching Mississippi State at a good time considering the Bulldogs are 2- 8 in their past
10 games and could be without junior guard I. J. Ready ( back injury), who missed their 88- 77 loss at LSU last Saturday.
“Right now we’re a little on the low self- esteem side,”
Mississippi State senior forward Gavin Ware said after the LSU game.
Arkansas junior center Moses Kingsley said the Razorbacks, who beat Mississippi State 82- 68 in Walton Arena Jan. 9, still expect the Bulldogs to be highly motivated tonight.
“They’ll probably be very ready for us and we have to be very, very ready for them, too,” Kingsley said. “They won’t let us just come in there and bully them.
“We have to go down there and handle business.”
Anderson said the Razorbacks have to stop “breaking our own momentum” and make key plays later in game on offense and defense.
Staying close at the freethrow line figures to be big for the Razorbacks, too.
Arkansas’ opponents have shot 80 more free throws — 264 to 184 — in the Razorbacks’ seven road games. LSU, Georgia and Florida combined to hit 63 of 97 attempts to 39 of 59 for the Razorbacks
in the last three road games.
“You do the math,” Anderson said. “You’re not going to win many games like that, so we’ve got to play defense with our feet and not necessarily our hands.”
The Razorbacks have won their past two games at Mississippi State — 73- 69 in 2014 and 65- 61 last season — after losing 12 in a row at the Humphrey Coliseum from 2001- 2013. Arkansas is 6- 17 at Starkville since joining the SEC.
“These guys that are playing for us this year had different roles last year,” he said. “The key guys have moved on.
“So to me it’s an opportunity for these guys to grow in those roles and do the same things that took place the previous two years, but this year has nothing to do with last year.
“It’s all about going and playing with confidence and hopefully being in position to have the chance to win the game.”