Arkansas gets Robert Morris on Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, and the line says plenty about the matchup. The Razorbacks are a 28 1/2-point favorite, with tipoff set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. and the game available on + and SEC Network+.
For viewers, the game also comes with familiar voices. Brett Dolan and Manuale Watkins will handle the stream, while Chuck Barrett and Matt Zimmerman will call it on the Razorback Sports Network. Arkansas enters at No. 19 in the Top 25 and No. 28 in KenPom, while Robert Morris is unranked and sits No. 222 in KenPom after a 79-56 loss to Illinois-Chicago.
The spread is not just about rankings. Arkansas played for the SEC Tournament title last season and reached its second straight NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, then returned Billy Richmond and added 10 newcomers, including eight freshmen. RotoWire lists the Razorbacks as the fifth-youngest team in Division I men's basketball, which makes them difficult to project but still hard to match up with in a single night. Robert Morris, meanwhile, finished 22-11 last season and reached the Horizon League Tournament semifinals, and it was picked second in the preseason Horizon League poll behind Wright State.
There is also a little history here, even if not much of it. Wednesday will be only the second all-time meeting between Arkansas and Robert Morris, and Arkansas won the first one 79-75 on Dec. 20, 2012, at Bud Walton Arena. It will be the fourth time John Calipari has coached against Robert Morris, and he has won each of his past two games against the program after a Kentucky loss in the 2013 NIT first round.
Calipari knows the school from another angle, too. Robert Morris is in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, close enough to his hometown that he said, “I could hit two 5-irons from my house and hit Robert Morris.” That is the part of this matchup that makes a routine nonconference date feel a little less routine. Arkansas wants to play fast and get out in transition, while Robert Morris prefers a slower halfcourt style, so the question is not whether the Razorbacks are favored. It is whether Robert Morris can slow the game enough to make that number matter.
