The Arkansas Razorbacks and the Mississippi State Bulldogs meet Saturday in college basketball action from Humphrey Coliseum. Here’s a Mississippi State vs Arkansas prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best Mississippi State vs Arkansas pick.
Arkansas Razorbacks Betting Preview
Arkansas managed a pretty nice 12-3 run over their first 15 games this year. The only blemishes during that time came courtesy of Michigan State, Duke and Houston. The Razorbacks would lose two of the next three games versus Auburn and Georgia, then beat Vanderbilt, LSU and Oklahoma in the next trio. After another loss to Kentucky, Arkansas had a 16-6 overall record this year.
In the Kentucky matchup over the weekend the Razorbacks were in trouble at the break and sitting in the locker room with a 42-35 deficit at home. Arkansas didn’t end up getting any closer than that on a 43-42 run the rest of the way and took the loss in the end 85-77. Leading the team in scoring was Darius Acuff with 22 points, three assists and two rebounds. Trevon Brazile added 16 points with eight boards as well.
Mississippi State Bulldogs Betting Preview
Over on the Mississippi State side, they logged a 10-5 record in their first 15 games with losses to Iowa State, Kansas State, New Mexico, SMU and San Francisco during that stretch. Since then the Bulldogs have fallen to Kentucky, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and Missouri alongside a lone win over LSU. That gives Mississippi State a .500 record through 22 games at 11-11 overall.
Matched up against Missouri on Saturday the Bulldogs entered the second half sporting a seven-point deficit 42-35. Arkansas posted a 44-42 run the rest of the way but couldn’t make the comeback in an 84-79 loss on the road. Tops in scoring was Jayden Epps with 23 points, four assists and two rebounds. Josh Hubbard added 22 points with six rebounds and two assists in the losing effort.
Why the Mississippi State Bulldogs will win
- Arkansas has lost each of its last 12 Saturday day road games against Conference opponents.
- Mississippi State has won each of its last five home games against Arkansas.
- Mississippi State has won the first half in each of its last six home games against Arkansas.
Why the Arkansas Razorbacks will win
- Arkansas has won each of its last seven February games as an AP-ranked team.
- Mississippi State has lost each of its last five games against AP-ranked opponents.
- Mississippi State has lost the first half in each of its last six games against AP-ranked opponents.
Mississippi State vs Arkansas Prediction
I’ll probably just stick with Arkansas here. The Razorbacks need a good bounce-back effort in this road matchup following their loss to Kentucky last weekend, though. In that one Arkansas shot well (49.2 percent) from the field with just four turnovers. The Razorbacks also posted just 21.4 percent (3 of 14) from outside along with a 33-21 rebounding deficit and 53.6 percent shooting allowed on defense, however. Arkansas is still 3-1 in their last four games, though, with 77 or more points in all of those and 83 or more in all three wins.
As for Mississippi State, they couldn’t quite keep pace with the Tigers last weekend. The Bulldogs were out-rebounded 36-33 and had 13 turnovers but otherwise didn’t play too badly overall for a road game against a pretty good team. Coming back home for this one will help, but I like Arkansas to power it out in the end.