The Oklahoma Sooners and Arkansas Razorbacks took similar approaches in practice and got the same result: their first Southeastern Conference wins.
The teams meet Saturday in Fayetteville, Ark., and hope their work off the court will put their SEC woes further behind them.
Oklahoma (14-4, 1-4 SEC), in its first season in the conference, has not played since blowing out visiting South Carolina 82-62 on Jan. 18.
Arkansas (12-7, 1-5) overcame a 15-point deficit in the second half to top Georgia 68-65 in Fayetteville on Wednesday, snapping a five-game skid. In the Razorbacks’ first game without standout freshman point guard Boogie Fland, Ado Thiero racked up 17 points and 11 rebounds. Thiero leads the team with 16.4 points per game.
Fland had successful ligament surgery on his right thumb and will miss the rest of the season. He sustained the injury Jan. 11 against Florida and struggled in the following two games.
Without Fland, Arkansas will have to replace his 15.1 points and team-leading 5.7 assists per game. To iron out the new rotations without Fland, Razorbacks coach John Calipari has done a lot of self-scouting.
“We learned Boogie needed the surgery and had all day Sunday to prepare,” Calipari said. “We scrimmaged a lot Monday since we had new guys in new spots. I’m more locked into our team than who we are playing. We are starting to get there and figure out how we have to play.”
After a 77-73 loss to Texas on Jan. 15 in the Red River Rivalry, Oklahoma coach Porter Moser also turned up the practice intensity.
“We wanted to get that taste out of our mouths,” Moser said. “In a weird way, I am more encouraged right now. We didn’t coach energy or effort. We coached execution, and the guys responded. We were all miserable. The guys were miserable. It was a really hard low point, that game, walking off that floor. But the guys stayed together and believed.”
Senior forward Jalon Moore leads the Sooners in scoring (18.3) and rebounding (6.3).
–Field Level Media
