Arkansas has a better team than Missouri, but one obvious concern looms large for this game.
The Arkansas Razorbacks are better than the Missouri Tigers. This is not a controversial statement. Arkansas is a 5 or 6 seed in NCAA Tournament bracketology right now, while Missouri is a bubble team, a 10 seed at best and probably an 11 seed. The Hogs play this game at home in Bud Walton Arena. They are and should be expected to win.
However, there's one big reason the Razorbacks might not win, and it's not very complicated: They might be tired.
Arkansas played a double-overtime thriller at Alabama on Wednesday. Note the word "Wednesday." Arkansas has played most of its SEC midweek games on Tuesdays this season. This week marked a shift to Wednesday. This was a road game followed by a commute home. It's a much shorter turnaround for the Hogs, combined with the reality of a draining 50-minute game which extended the starters.
Darius Acuff played all 50 minutes at Alabama. Trevon Brazile played 47. John Calipari will have to steal some minutes for both players against Missouri. How well can Arkansas play in non-Acuff and non-Brazile minutes? This is a significant concern. Arkansas doesn't have to dominate non-Acuff minutes, but it has to break even and make sure Missouri doesn't slap an 8-2 or 12-5 run on the Hogs when Acuff and/or Brazile are out.
Many people will say, "But wait, NCAA Tournament games are played one day apart, and SEC Tournament games are played on consecutive days. These guys will be fine." Maybe so, but after several weeks of playing on Tuesdays, Arkansas had to play Wednesday and then got extended multiple overtimes. This is a game in which the bench has to show up. It's a game in which Nick Pringle, who played only 23 minutes against Alabama, likely needs to play something closer to 30 minutes to pick up the slack for the men who had to work extra long and extra hard at Bama.
This is a game in which John Calipari will want to sub out Acuff and Brazile one minute before TV timeouts. If there's a break or a dead ball at the 13:30 mark, Cal needs to sit Acuff and/or Brazile so that they get the full benefit of rest during the under-12-minute media timeout and can then be re-inserted on the other side of it. The staff has to be mindful of timely substitutions to maximize the TV timeouts as sources of rest for the starters who had to empty the tank at Alabama.
Arkansas can't allow the Bama game to beat the Hogs twice. We will see how Calipari and the roster handle this game management challenge.