Des Moines, Iowa — Top-seeded Kansas, a 96-68 winner over No. 16 Howard on Thursday, will take on No. 8 Arkansas at 4:15 p.m. Saturday on CBS.
The Razorbacks knocked off No. 9 seed Illinois, 73-63, in the second game of the day at Wells Fargo Arena and advanced to take on the defending champs in Round 2.
KU (28-7) opened as a 4.5-point favorite over Arkansas (21-13), which spent part of the season ranked in the Top 10 but also endured a four-game losing streak early in SEC play and suffered through another stretch of five losses in a seven-game span to end the regular season.
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Box score: Kansas 96, Howard 68
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Based strictly off of KenPom.com rankings, the Razorbacks’ best wins of the 2022-23 season came over San Diego State on a neutral floor in November, over Missouri at home in early January, at Kentucky in early February and over Auburn in the opening round of the SEC tournament last week.
In terms of bad losses, Arkansas lost at LSU in late December and also lost at Vanderbilt in mid-January.
In the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in late January, Arkansas lost to Baylor by three in Waco, Texas. The Hogs also lost to Texas A&M in the second round of the SEC tournament, and A&M was run out of the building by Penn State in the final game of the day in Des Moines.
Landing at No. 21 in the latest KenPom rankings, Arkansas features the nation’s 55th best offense and 13th best defense and is known for its effective field goal defense as well as its block percentage (13.4%, 17th nationally) and steal percentage 12%, 23rd).
By far the Razorbacks’ biggest weakness is their 3-point shooting. Eric Musselman’s club ranks 305th nationally at 31.6% from deep as a team and also ranks 348th nationally in 3-point attempts per field goals attempted.
The Hogs use their athleticism and length to their advantage on both ends of the floor, and Kansas will have to find a way to combat that by keeping the ball out of the paint on defense and forcing Arkansas to shoot from the outside as often as possible and cleaning up the glass when they do.
When the Jayhawks are on offense, crisp and continuous ball movement, attacking downhill and taking care of the basketball will all be huge keys for the Jayhawks.
KenPom has the game as a 73-70 win for Kansas, which gives the Jayhawks a win probability rate of 62%.
Stay tuned for much more on the matchup from Friday’s media availability sessions at Wells Fargo Arena.