Preview/GameThread: Texas A&M vs. Arkansas

After a temporary reprieve at home against LSU, last weekend's game in Starkville was an ugly, ugly regression. Turnovers, foul trouble, turnovers, and more turnovers.

Arkansas comes to town tonight in a game with an admittedly sweet promotion deal and some great uniforms, but that might not be enough to keep the Aggie faithful engaged. Time has shown that the product on the court is pretty much the only thing that demands attention from locals and students... but I suppose we'll get our answer soon enough.

Time: 6:00pm

Location: Reed Arena

TV: SEC Network

Line: Texas A&M is favored by 4 points

************************************

Arkansas is a fascinating basketball entity, because they don't play defense in the traditional sense. Rather, they see it as a means to one of two possible ways to get the basketball back:

1. A turnover
2. A made basket

That's their defensive strategy in a nutshell. Gamble, extend, and generally play the game at a thousand miles an hour. It's a strategy that works very well at Bud Walton arena, as the crowd has learned to expect this style and tends to feed off it, but it's a little easier to deal with when they're on the road.

This is especially important because we play the game slower than just about anyone in the country. We want to run 20-25 seconds off of every possession, pound the ball inside, and keep the point total low. With that in mind, today's game is almost entirely about pace control. The team that enforces their style of play will take this one home.

1-4 ain't great, but it's not a death sentence when you have thirteen games remaining. Let's get it done.

BTHO Arkansas