UA men eager to rebound

Arkansas forward Bobby Portis reacts to a foul call during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Mississippi on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015, in Fayetteville, Ark. Portis led all scorers with 23 points, but Mississippi defeated Arkansas 96-82. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)
Arkansas forward Bobby Portis reacts to a foul call during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Mississippi on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015, in Fayetteville, Ark. Portis led all scorers with 23 points, but Mississippi defeated Arkansas 96-82. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas wants to make sure there isn't a repeat against Alabama in Walton Arena.

The only time in Mike Anderson's four seasons as coach that Arkansas has lost back-to-back home games was to Florida (98-68) and Alabama (79-68) in February 2012.

UP NEXT

Arkansas vs Alabama

WHEN 6 p.m. Thursday

WHERE Walton Arena, Fayetteville

RECORDS Arkansas 13-4, 2-2 SEC; Alabama 12-5, 2-2

SERIES Arkansas leads 29-28

RADIO Razorback Sports Network

TV ESPN2

When Alabama (12-5, 2-2 SEC) plays at Arkansas (13-4, 2-2) Thursday night, the Crimson Tide will try to hand the Razorbacks a second consecutive home loss after Ole Miss won 96-82 at Walton Arena last Saturday night.

The Razorbacks, who lost at Tennessee 74-69 last Tuesday, also are trying to avoid their first three-game losing streak since November 2013 when they lost to Arizona State, No. 24 Wisconsin and No. 6 Syracuse.

Arkansas, No. 19 in The Associated Press and USA Today polls last week, fell out when the new rankings were released Monday.

"I think our guys will bounce back," Anderson said. "You've got to."

Arkansas lost consecutive games at Iowa State and Clemson in early December, then put together a seven-game winning streak -- including a home victory over a Dayton team now ranked No. 22 in both polls -- before losing at Tennessee.

"We've responded to adversity and battled back," Anderson said. "So just like we start off 2-0 [in the SEC] and then we go 0-2, well, guess what? We can change that real quick.

"We've got 14 games left. So there's no panic."

Alabama also started 2-0 in SEC play, winning 65-44 over Texas A&M and 56-38 at Tennessee to break a 16-game road losing streak, then lost last week at South Carolina (68-66) and to No. 1 Kentucky (70-48).

The Kentucky game was the most-lopsided home loss in Alabama Coach Anthony Grant's six seasons.

The Wildcats (17-0, 4-0) have an average winning margin of 25.7 points on the season, so Alabama at least beat that.

"You have to be able to face what happened in the game and look at it and say, 'How can we be better from this? What can we learn from this?' " Grant said. "Hopefully, we've got enough mental toughness and leadership on our team where we'll be able to learn from that, shake that off loss and be prepared to go in and give our best effort in our next game."

Alabama has some familiar players, like senior guards Levi Randolph and Rodney Cooper, and an impact newcomer in junior guard Ricky Tarrant.

Tarrant, who redshirted last season after transferring from Tulane, has taken over at point guard with the loss of Trevor Releford, a four-year starter. Tarrant is averaging 12.8 points per game, including a team-high 12.3 in SEC play. He scored 15 points against Texas A&M and South Carolina and 14 at Tennessee.

Volunteers Coach Donnie Tyndall coached against Tarrant previously in Conference USA, when Tyndall was at Southern Mississippi.

"I like Ricky a lot," Tyndall said. "He's athletic. He can shoot it. He's good with the ball. He makes a lot of good things happen. He's one of the better guards in our league now."

Texas A&M Coach Billy Kennedy said he knows Tarrant well from recruiting him.

"He brings a lot personality and confidence to their team on the perimeter that they needed, especially losing [Releford]," Kennedy said. "He can score. He can make a play for somebody else.

"He has some leadership qualities that I think improve that Alabama team."

Alabama has held its SEC opponents to 55.0 points per game and .383 shooting -- including 27.1 on three-point attempts -- playing zone defense primarily.

"The thing that bothered us the most is when they went zone," Tyndall said. "To their credit, they made us settle for jump shots.

'"We went 2 for 17 from behind the arc and became reluctant to drive the ball, I think in large part because of Alabama's length and athleticism. The couple times we did try to drive it, they blocked or challenged shots at the rim."

Alabama 6-10 sophomore Jimmie Taylor has 31 blocked shots.

"You've got to be able to shoot the ball well and attack that zone the right way," Kennedy said. "It can be an aggressive zone, it can be a soft zone, and they both gave us problems.

"It really slowed us up. We like to score in transition, and we weren't able to do that against Alabama's zone."

That will be Arkansas' challenge Thursday night.

"You've got to have good ball movement and you've got to get the ball moving baseline, sideline, inside the zone as well where the soft spot is," Anderson said. "Then you've got to make shots."

Sports on 01/21/2015

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