FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas senior guard Jabril Durham has no doubt Wake Forest will be looking for payback when the Razorbacks play the Demon Deacons tonight in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Wake Forest returns much of its roster from last season's team that lost 83-53 at Arkansas.
"I know they're really mad about how we did them last year," Durham said. "So it's going to be a great test."
Wake Forest (5-2) is playing its fifth consecutive game against an opponent from a Power Five Conference and first at home after going 2-1 at the Maui Invitational and winning at Rutgers.
The Demon Deacons beat Indiana 82-78 and UCLA 80-77 in Maui sandwiched around an 86-64 loss to Vanderbilt. They beat Rutgers 69-68 with a late 16-2 run.
"It was in November when we played those guys last year, real early," Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said of the 30-point victory in Danny Manning's fourth game as Wake Forest's coach. "Maybe we just caught them at the right time, but we played well.
"I'm sure with the return game, they'll be ready to play. They'll be a lot more comfortable playing at home."
Arkansas (3-3) is playing its first road game this season. The Razorbacks' previous two games away from home were in New York, where they lost in the Preseason NIT last week to Georgia Tech 83-73 and Stanford 69-66.
"A lot of people on this team haven't been on the road in a hostile environment," Durham said. "So it's going to be a great start, especially getting us ready for the SEC."
Wake Forest senior guard Codi Miller-McIntrye, who averaged a team-high 14.5 points last season, has been sidelined since October because of a foot injury, but the Demon Deacons have four other players who started at least 13 games last season and have added impact newcomer Bryant Crawford.
The Demon Deacons are strong inside with 6-9 senior Devin Thomas and 6-10 sophomore Dinos Mitoglou. Thomas is averaging 18.4 points and 11.3 rebounds and Mitoglou 12.0 and 7.7
Crawford, a freshman guard, is averaging 14.3 points and 3.6 assists. Sophomore guard Mitchell Wilbekin -- the brother of former Florida All-American guard Scottie Wilbekin -- is averaging 10.4 points.
"They're a team that has some seasoning," Anderson said. "They have some tremendous talent and good size, and they're playing good basketball.
"We know the formula on the road is you've got to be able to defend, you've got to be able to take care of the basketball, you've got to shoot the basketball well, and of course you've got to rebound.
"It's going to take a tremendous team effort -- very much like what took place here last year."
The Razorbacks' strengths are the Demons' Deacons' weakness and vice versa.
Arkansas has a plus-4.5 turnover margin and Wake Forest is minus-5.1. The Demon Deacons are plus-7.1 in rebounding margin and the Razorbacks are plus-3.5, but they were outrebounded 50-26 by Georgia Tech.
"Their strength is being able to shoot it and go get it," Anderson said. "That's what Georgia Tech did, so that's something we've got to do a lot better job of, and hopefully we can create some tempo with our pressure defense."
Arkansas junior forward Moses Kingsley said the Razorbacks need to play tonight with the same energy they did in the first half against Stanford, when they led by as many as 20 points.
"We have to put two 20-minute halves like that together against Wake Forest," Kingsley said. "If we do that, we'll be fine."
What the Razorbacks don't want is a finish like they suffered against Stanford, which rallied with a 21-1 run in the final 6:28.
"We've got to play with no fear," Anderson said. "I don't want us to play like we did against Stanford, where we played not to lose.
"We've got to be a team that has different guys step up and perform at a high level."
Sports on 12/04/2015