The No. 18 Arkansas Razorbacks take on the No. 6 Kentucky Wildcats Saturday in Fayetteville in a key Southeastern Conference showdown that will feature a “stripe out” of sold out Bud Walton Arena.
Despite an 0-3 start in conference play, the Hogs are competing for an SEC men’s basketball title in the regular season’s home stretch and have won 12 of their last 13 games. Arkansas is 22-6 and tied with No. 17 Tennessee (20-7) at 11-4 in the SEC, a game behind Kentucky (23-5 overall) in league play. The Hogs close out the regular season against LSU — March 2 in Fayetteville — and at Tennessee March 5.
Third-ranked Auburn (25-3 and 13-2) plays at Tennessee on Saturday. It closes the regular season at home against South Carolina while Kentucky hosts Ole Miss and travels to Florida to close the regular season. Tennessee travels to Georgia between its home games with Auburn and Arkansas.
Arkansas, as of Feb. 25 a projected 6 seed by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, is experiencing a basketball renaissance under Eric Musselman. Saturday’s game, scheduled for 1 p.m. and set for a national CBS broadcast, is one of the more anticipated matchups at Bud Walton in years.
The Hogs’ last two home games featured the 90-86 overtime win over then-No. 1 Auburn and a 58-48 slugfest win over Tennessee. Arkansas needs only to win one of its remaining three games to wrap up a top four seeding and double bye in the SEC tournament, which runs March 9-13 in Tampa.
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