Razorbacks face another highly-ranked team against Florida

Who: Arkansas Razorbacks (11-4, 0-2 SEC) vs No. 8/8 Florida Gators (14-1, 1-1 SEC)
What: For the first time in program history, Arkansas opens league play (SEC and SWC) versus three-straight, top-25 teams.
When: Saturday – Jan. 11 – 3:00 pm (CT)
How to Watch:
• TV/Stream: ESPN / Watch ESPN (Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes)
• Radio: Learfield Razorback Sports Network (Chuck Barrett and Matt Zimmerman)
• Sirius/XM: Sirius: 84 / XM: 84 || SXM App Channel 84
• Arkansas Gameday App
• Live Stats

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas will close its two-game homestand by hosting No. 8 Florida on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN.

Next week, Arkansas plays a pair of road games starting at LSU on Tuesday (Jan. 14) with tipoff set for 8 p.m.

NOTES:

Against Florida
• Arkansas and Florida have met on 39 previous occasions, all since the Razorbacks entered the SEC for the 1991-92 season.
• Florida owns a 27-15 advantage in the series overall. However, Arkansas leads 10-7 in games played in Fayetteville, including a two-game winning streak.
• Last year, Florida won 90-68 in Gainesville. Arkansas got off to a slow start but used a 12-3 run to cut its deficit to 10 after a Joseph Pinion fastbreak basket with 6:56 left in the first half. However, Florida opened the second half with an 11-4 run to push its lead to 20 and never looked back. Florida, which led the NCAA in rebounding, held a 48-31 advantage on the boards including 15 offensive boards to out-score Arkansas 17-8 on second-chance points.

Playing No. 8
• This will be the second time this year Arkansas has faced a team ranked No. 8 in the AP poll. In game two, then No. 16 Arkansas lost to then No. 8 Baylor, 72-67, in Dallas.
• All-time, Arkansas is 3-6 versus AP No. 8 teams.
• However, Coach Calipari is 7-2 all-time versus AP No. 8 teams. (2-0 at UMass • 1-0 at Memphis • 4-1 at Kentucky • 0-1 at Arkansas)

Arkansas Has Tough Opening Stretch
• Arkansas opened the SEC slate at No. 1 Tennessee, hosted No. 23 Ole MIss on Wednesday and hosts No. 8 Florida on Saturday.
• The Razorbacks have never opened conference action (SEC nor SWC) by facing three-straight, top 25 opponents. The closest was playing three ranked opponents in games 2, 3 and 4 to open the 2022-23 SEC season. In 1999-00, Arkansas closed the regular season by facing six-straight, top-25 opponents (going 2-4) vs No. 11 Florida (L, 80-71) on Feb. 15, vs No. 16 LSU (L, 78-67) on Feb. 19, vs No. 24 Vanderbilt (W, 78-63), at No. 18 Kentucky (L, 60-55) on Feb. 26, at No. 11 Tennessee (L, 73-66) and vs No. 19 Auburn (W, 64-55).
• The last time Arkansas played three-straight, top-25 opponents was twice in the 2022-23 season. First, games 2, 3 and 4 of the of the 2022-23 conference season, Arkansas faced No. 20 Missouri (W, 74-68) on Jan. 4, played at No. 22 Auburn (L, 72-59) on Jan. 7 and hosted No. 4 Alabama (L, 84-69) on Jan. 11. Later, the Razorbacks closed the regular season by playing at No. 2 Alabama (L, 86-83) on Feb. 25, at No. 2 Tennessee (L, 75-57) on Feb. 28 and vs No. 23 Kentucky (L, 88-79) on Mar. 4.
• Overall, Arkansas has only played at least three-straight, top-25 opponents in the regular season 8 times including twice in 2022-23 (see above), once in 2002-03 (at No. 4 Florida, vs No. 22 Alabama, at No. 23 Miss State), once in 2001-02 (at No. 15 Georgia, vs No. 5 Florida, at No. 7 Alabama), once (technically twice) in 1999-00 (see above), once in 1998-99 (at No. 23 Florida, vs No. 6 Kentucky, vs No. 2 Auburn), once in 1990 Preseason NIT (vs No. 15 Oklahoma, vs No. 6 Duke, vs No. 3 Arizona) and once in 1980 Alaska Shootout (No. 11 Mizzou, No. 12 LSU, No. 13 North Carolina).

Some Good News
• In 2022-23, when Arkansas played three straight, top-25 teams in games 2, 3, and 4 of the SEC season, the Razorbacks went 1-2 by beating No. 20 Mizzou and losing to No. 22 Auburn and No. 4 Alabama. Overall, Arkansas started that season 1-5 in league play but finished the year by making its third-straight Sweet 16.
• In 2021-22, Arkansas started league play 0-3 but finished 13-5 in the league and reached the NCAA Elite 8.
• In 2020-21, Arkansas started league play 1-3 to start and was 2-4 in the league after six conference game. The Hogs won its final 13 league games, finishing 13-4 in the SEC, and reached the NCAA Elite 8.
• The SEC has had at least one team make the NCAA Tournament field during five of the last six seasons after an 0-2 conference start when the Big Dance has been held including: Florida (2024) • Texas A&M (2024) • Miss State (2023) • Arkansas (2022) • Mississippi State (2019) • Tennessee (2018) • Texas A&M( 2018)

Adou is Now No. 1
• Adou Thiero, who was 7-of-12 from the field versus Ole Miss, now leads the SEC, and ranks 20th in the NCAA, in field goal percentage at 60.8%. He has shot over 60% from the field in 8 of his 14 games. He is shooting an impressive 68.6% (81-118) from inside the 3-point arc.
• Last time out, Thiero led the team with 17 points, nine rebounds and two steals. Thiero has led the team in scoring a team-best seven times, led the team in rebounding a team-best eight times and led the team in steals a team-best seven times.

Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.