Arkansas, Texas A&M to collide in SEC showdown
FAYETTEVILLE — It was a tough road trip for Texas A&M's basketball team to the University of Arkansas earlier this season.
Instead of flying into Fayetteville the day before the game as planned, wintry weather forced the Aggies to divert to Wichita, Kan., and bus to Tulsa, Okla., to spend the night.
Texas A&M finally arrived in Fayetteville on game day about seven hours before tipoff.
Things didn't go much better in Walton Arena for the Aggies, who never led and trailed for 37:03 in losing to the Razorbacks 81-70 on Jan. 31.
“We weren't our best that game,” said Texas A&M sophomore guard Wade Taylor, who had 18 points. “Nobody was. Even Coach [Buzz Williams] said he wasn't.
“Our routine was thrown off, but that's no excuse. We just didn't come out with that same mentality we need to have every game.”
Arkansas led by as many as 10 points in the first half and was ahead 42-34 at halftime.
“We just as a team were not hooked up,” said Aggies junior forward Hank Coleman, who had 18 points and 15 rebounds. “You could tell we weren't hooked up in warmups, we weren't hooked up much at the start of the game.
“The last 27 minutes of the game I thought was pretty good Texas A&M basketball. But we kind of gave the first 13 minutes away, just coming out slow.
“We know what's at stake now. We know what we have to do.”
Getting back home after the game also wasn't easy for Texas A&M. Because of wintry weather that hit Texas, the Aggies had to fly to Houston, then bus to College Station.
As Williams said to the media Tuesday, travel shouldn't be an issue for the Aggies (18-7, 10-2 SEC) when they get another shot at the Razorbacks (17-8, 6-6) at 8 tonight in Reed Arena.
“I told our players we don't need a plane and we don't need a charter bus,” Williams said. “If your car's broke, I'll come and pick you up. If you don't want to drive your car or come with a teammate, I'll still come pick you up.'”
Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman knows the Aggies won't be lacking motivation tonight.
“They're a competitive team with a lot of veterans that are back,” Musselman said Monday night on his radio show. “Our team is going to have to understand we're running into a desperate A&M team that's going to be extremely fired up to play us, because we did beat them.”
Despite the Aggies being second in the SEC standings behind Alabama — 12-0 in the conference and No. 1 in The Associated Press poll — they're No. 34 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings because of some non-conference losses, most notably to Wofford 67-62 at home.
Arkansas is No. 23 in the NET rankings. Other remaining games
for the Aggies include at No. 41 Missouri, No. 3 Tennessee at home, at No. 40 Mississippi State and No. 2 Alabama at home.
“It's high reward,” Taylor said of the Aggies' finishing stretch. “But this is what we dreamed about as kids growing up, being able to play in these bigtime games.
“A lot of opportunities, but we're just going to take it head first.”
Arkansas shot 50% (28 of 56) from the field in beating Texas A&M earlier this season and the Aggies shot 34.2% (26 of 76), including 15 of 39 on layups and attempts at the rim.
“We did not give our best, and I thought Arkansas was tremendous,” Williams said. “I thought they were tougher than we were. I thought they punked us.
“They had 10 blocked shots. We couldn't make a shot at the rim. They made every shot at the rim. I thought they were just more physical and played harder.”
Williams said he's hoping for a better effort from his players tonight.
“I'm not saying we're good enough to beat them, but I want to see if we can at least be better than we were the last time when we were there,” Williams said.
“I don't know that our best is good enough, but I at least want to see if our best gives us a chance.”
Arkansas junior guards Ricky Council and Davonte “Devo” Davis each scored 19 points against Texas A&M, and twins and senior forwards Makhel and Makhi Mitchell combined for 15 points, 18 rebounds and 10 blocked shots on their 23rd birthdays.
Makhel Mitchell finished with a careerhigh 13 rebounds, had 7 blocked shots to tie for the most by a Razorback in an SEC game and added 9 points.
“They have two very, very good shot blockers,” Coleman said of the Mitchells. “I think bigs-wise you just have to finish through them and play strong.”
The Aggies also struggled at the free throw line where they were 14 of 24 compared to the Razorbacks shooting 19 of 26.
“Finishing at the rim, most definitely. Finishing free throws,” Taylor said of what the Aggies need to do better tonight than they did at Arkansas. “Just coming with high energy.
“We didn't match those guys' energy. We tried to match it too late.
“We have to be the aggressor coming in. Just playing our hardest and playing our best. Playing downhill.”
Since losing at Arkansas, the Aggies have won three in a row over Georgia 82-57 and Auburn 83-78 at home and at LSU 74-62 in a game they led 42-17 at halftime.
Texas A&M is 5-0 in SEC home games with its only conference loss — besides Arkansas — at Kentucky 76-67.
“I just know that this is a team that has only two losses in league,” Musselman said. “They have an incredible conference record right now.
“Coach Williams is a great coach. There's zero doubt in my mind he will tweak things and make adjustments, and we certainly cannot go into this game with the exact same game plan either.”