Arkansas enters a rematch against Auburn. This has to be a win, and it should be.
The Arkansas Razorbacks have responded the right way to their week off. They were not a good team in the two and a half weeks before their break. They needed to step away from the grind for a little bit, get back to the practice court, and reestablish good habits. They have done that in two blowout road wins over bad teams, Mississippi State and LSU. Now they return to Bud Walton Arena for the first time in two weeks for a Saturday night home game against Auburn.
This game has to be a win for Arkansas on every level. First, Auburn just isn't good. The Tigers are coming off consecutive home-court losses. They give up a ton of points. Auburn has lost three different SEC basketball games this season when scoring at least 88 points, the most recent example being a 96-92 loss at home to Auburn this past Saturday. Auburn just doesn't defend well. It's the problem first-year head coach Steven Pearl has been unable to solve.
The second reason Arkansas absolutely has to win this game is that the Hogs were awful in their first meeting with the Tigers this season. They got their doors blown off, 95-73, and simply did not show up. The inconsistency and lack of focus of the Razorbacks began to emerge in this game. It's something which persisted for the rest of the month of January, and only after the off week did John Calipari make real progress in addressing this flaw.
Now Arkansas needs to continue to remain locked in. Given how poorly the Hogs played in Game 1 against Auburn, Game 2 should be a very different story. It should not be hard for Calipari to get the full attention of his team. Playing at home for the first time in two weeks should add a level of freshness and enthusiasm to this game. If Arkansas doesn't come out with energy, passion and determination after playing a Tuesday night game -- giving UA three full days off before this contest -- something will be noticeably and strangely wrong.
There's no excuse. Arkansas should be able to win and win comfortably. An offense which has scored at least 88 points in two straight games should be able to score big against Auburn's struggling defense. Arkansas has looked like a good team over the past week. If the Hogs are what we think they are -- and what we think they can be -- they will drill the Tigers and remain on a roll in the middle of February.