The Arkansas Razorbacks and the Oklahoma Sooners meet Saturday in college basketball action from BOK Center. Arkansas is 8-1 overall this year. The Razorbacks beat UNC Greensboro in their last matchup. As for Oklahoma, they’re 7-2 so far after taking out UMKC on Tuesday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Arkansas beat North Dakota State, Fordham, South Dakota State and Louisville to start the year, then lost to Creighton. Since then the Razorbacks are 4-0 with wins over San Diego State, Troy, San Jose State and UNC Greensboro.
Arkansas started slow in their last matchup versus UNC Greensboro, trailing 26-21 by halftime. The Razorbacks got it together with 44 second-half points and posted a comeback win 65-58, though. Nick Smith led the way on 22 points and four boards.
Over on the Oklahoma side, they lost to Sam Houston to kick of the year, then beat AR-Pine Bluff, UNCW, South Alabama, Nebraska, Seton Hall and Ole Miss. Last weekend Oklahoma took another loss to Villanova.
On Tuesday versus UMKC, Oklahoma got back into the win column. The Sooners outscored the Roos 48-26 in the second half during a 75-53 win. Leading scorer Grant Sherfield put up 24 points with four rebounds.
PICK: I’ll probably stay with Arkansas. This should be an interesting matchup, though. The Razorbacks had a rough first half in the UNC Greensboro game, but to their credit Arkansas picked it up after halftime. The Razorbacks ended up shooting just 33.3 percent from the floor and 3-of-18 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range in that one, but had a 47-39 rebounding advantage. Oklahoma has been a mixed bag when it comes to putting up points—they’ve got 66 or more in six of nine games—so it’ll probably be tough for the Sooners to keep up if Arkansas is shooting well. The Razorbacks need a good offensive bounce-back but I think they’ll cover.