Arkansas and LSU are two of five teams that are winless in Southeastern Conference play.
One of them will break out of that group when the Razorbacks (11-5, 0-3) and Tigers (11-5, 0-3) meet Tuesday night in Baton Rouge, La.
Arkansas has lost to three ranked SEC opponents in then-No. 1 Tennessee, then-No. 23 Ole Miss and then-No. 8 Florida, the latter game 71-63 on Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark.
“We gave ourselves a chance,” Arkansas coach John Calipari said of the loss to the Gators. “We held a Top 10 team to 39 percent from the floor and 28 percent from the 3. We did good stuff to them.”
But Calipari lamented the fact that the Razorbacks didn’t take better advantage of shooting 35 free throws, making just 24, and “missed a bunch of layups.”
The Tigers, meanwhile, have been plagued by points off turnovers in all three of their SEC losses. They were outscored 23-11 by Ole Miss in that category during a 77-65 road loss last Saturday.
The Rebels scored nine points off LSU turnovers during a 20-6 run to start the second half, which enabled them to take control after leading by just two at halftime.
“We’re going to turn it over some,” Tigers coach Matt McMahon said, “but the pick-six turnovers are just back breakers for us. We’d be better off getting a shot-clock violation than these turnovers out front against the pressure that are leading to transition layups.”
McMahon inserted freshman point guard Curtis Givens III into the starting lineup in place of Jordan Sears because Givens’ ball handling had stabilized the offense in the second half of a loss at Missouri four days earlier.
Givens finished with six points, two assists and three turnovers against Ole Miss while Sears had 10 points, six assists and four turnovers. His point total was nearly four below his average of 13.8, which is second-best of the team, and he finished 3-for-12 shooting from the floor.
–Field Level Media
