Razorbacks start season with Samford

FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks will open the 2017-18 season against Samford on Friday, Nov. 10 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. Time and TV details have yet to be announced.

Arkansas and Samford haven’t played since November 1989, when the Razorbacks beat the Bulldogs 97-67 in Pine Bluff. The programs’ only other meeting came in 1985 at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville, which Arkansas also won.

Samford is coming off a 20-16 season in which it played in the College Insider.com Tournament, a postseason alternative to the NCAA Tournament and NIT. The Bulldogs were 8-10 in the Southern Conference regular season, but advanced to the semifinals of the league’s tournament.

The Bulldogs are coached by Scott Padgett, a former standout at Kentucky who was a starter on the Wildcats’ 1998 national championship team. Padgett is entering his fourth season as head coach at Samford, located in Birmingham, Ala.

Samford is the sixth known nonconference opponent for the Razorbacks in the coming season. Arkansas also is scheduled to host Minnesota on Dec. 9, Oklahoma State on Jan. 27 and Colorado State in December on a date to be determined.

The Razorbacks open the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Ore., on Thanksgiving with a game against Oklahoma, and will play either North Carolina or Portland the following day. Georgetown, Michigan State, UConn and Oregon are other potential opponents for Arkansas at the event that runs Nov. 23-26.

CBSSports.com has reported the Razorbacks will play at Houston on Dec. 2 in the second of a two-game series that began last season.