A pair of one-loss Southeastern Conference foes open the league season with a showdown on Wednesday night when No. 9 Arkansas battles LSU at Baton Rouge, La.

The Razorbacks (11-1) have won seven straight games and are playing their first true road game of the season. LSU (11-1) owns a six-game winning streak and is 8-0 at home.

Arkansas was predicted to bring a lofty record into SEC play after reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons.

LSU’s early season success wasn’t a guarantee with former Murray State coach Matt McMahon taking over after the end of the controversial Will Wade tenure.

But McMahon’s rebuilding process received a boost when two of his key Murray State players elected to follow him — big man KJ Williams and guard Justice Hill.

Williams, the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year last season, leads the Tigers with averages of 19.3 points and 8.3 rebounds and with 20 steals and 11 blocked shots.

Hill was a first-team All-OVC selection last season but is still searching for his comfort level. He is averaging 8.7 points but shooting a shaky 33 percent from the field.

A third Murray State player, backup Trae Hannibal (4.5 points per game), also transferred to LSU.

Still, McMahon hasn’t found it easy — despite the solid record — to get things established.

“It’s been very challenging starting a program over from scratch and we certainly have a long way to go,” McMahon said. “But the most important thing that I’m pleased with has been the buy-in of the players, their commitment to work and get better and want to win.”

LSU’s lone loss came in the championship game of the Cayman Islands Classic on Nov. 23 when Kansas State pulled out a 61-59 win.

Adam Miller (13.5) is the only other player scoring in double digits for the Tigers, who last played on Wednesday when they recorded a 72-68 home win over East Tennessee State.

Arkansas also last saw action the same night when it routed visiting UNC Asheville 85-51.

Jalen Graham scored 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting and the Razorbacks racked up 15 steals.

Graham, a transfer from Arizona State, has played just 75 minutes despite shooting 66.7 percent from the field. He is averaging 6.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in nine games off the bench for coach Eric Musselman.

“If he feels that I’m not doing enough, then I’m not going to be mad,” Graham said of his limited playing time. “I’m here for the team, I’m here to just win games. That’s why I came here — to win — so I’m not really tripping.”

Ricky Council IV is averaging a team-best 18.3 points, while highly regarded NBA freshman prospect Nick Smith Jr. is once again sidelined with knee issues.

Smith, who is averaging 12.8 points in five appearances, missed the first six games of the season due to the knee. He later displayed his promise over a three-game span by averaging 19.7 points but struggled to five points on 1-of-8 shooting against Bradley on Dec. 17.

Smith didn’t play against UNC Asheville and Musselman said he is out “indefinitely.”

“Nick is a competitor and he looked forward to playing for the Razorbacks,” Musselman said. “He’s kind of been in and out of the lineup and we just want him to get healthy as quickly as possible and for him to be 100 percent.”

Arkansas’ lone loss this season came in the Maui Invitational semifinals against then-No. 10 Creighton when it fell 90-87.

The Razorbacks went 3-0 against LSU last season, including a 65-58 win in Baton Rouge on Jan. 15.

–Field Level Media

No. 21 Mississippi State will face its toughest test to date when it hosts No. 8 Alabama in both teams’ Southeastern Conference opener on Wednesday in Starkville, Miss.

The Bulldogs (11-1) are off to their best start since opening the 2003-04 season 13-0 en route to winning the SEC West Division’s regular-season title, but they have yet to play a ranked team.

Playing ranked teams is nothing new to the Crimson Tide (10-2), who are off to their best start through 12 games since going 11-1 to open the 2006-07 season.

Alabama has played five ranked opponents, beating then-No. 1 North Carolina, then-No. 1 Houston and then-No. 12 Michigan State. Alabama’s losses are to then-No. 20 UConn, which is now ranked second nationally and undefeated, and then-No. 15 Gonzaga.

“We’ve got the ability to play with anybody in the country. We’ve got a lot of growth yet to do,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said.

“We’ve got to get more consistency with both our effort on the defensive end and taking care of the ball on offense because it’s gonna be some big games in the SEC. Whether it’s a home game or a road game, I think we’ve proven to ourselves we’re capable of winning any game we play in the SEC, but we’re also capable of losing any game we play.”

In its last game, Mississippi State led Drake 31-23 at halftime before getting outscored 35-21 in the second half of a 58-52 loss in The Battle in the Vault event on Dec. 20 in Lincoln, Neb.

Eric Reed Jr., who scored all 11 of his points in the first half, was the only Bulldog who finished the game in double figures. Tolu Smith, Dashawn Davis and KeShawn Murphy each added nine points.

“Folks that have been watching us know we haven’t been playing our best,” Mississippi State first-year coach Chris Jans said. “I was hoping that we would regroup against a very good Drake team. I know that Drake had their attention.

“They knew the preseason predictions in the Valley and the NCAA Tournament win last year and all the returnees. So it wasn’t like our guys overlooked them by any stretch of the imagination at all.”

Smith averages a team-high 15.6 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, while D.J. Jeffries, who was held to three points on 1-for-7 shooting from the field against Drake, averages 9.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Davis averages 9.2 points and a team-high 2.8 assists per game.

Alabama rebounded from a 100-90 loss to Gonzaga on Dec. 17 with an 84-64 victory over visiting Jackson State three days later.

Mark Sears scored 15 points, all in the second half, while Noah Gurley added 16 points and five rebounds for Alabama.

Brandon Miller, who averages a team-high 19.3 points per game, chipped in 10 points and a season-high 14 rebounds, with Charles Bediako finishing with 10 points and nine rebounds. Jahvon Quinerly had eight points and five assists.

Noah Clowney, the team’s leading rebounder (8.8 rebounds per game) and third-leading scorer (9.5 points per game), missed the game due to illness, but he’s expected to play against Mississippi State.

The teams split a pair of games last season, with the Bulldogs winning 78-76 in Starkville on Jan. 15 before the Crimson Tide beat Mississippi State 80-75 on Feb. 16 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

–Field Level Media

Two opponents jumped off the page of the Houston Cougars’ nonconference schedule, but after completing their early slate with the second-most wins in program history, it’s clear that the Cougars gained much more than those contests against Alabama and Virginia.

No. 3 Houston (12-1) will open its American Athletic Conference schedule at Tulsa (4-7) on Wednesday off an 83-44 home victory over McNeese State last Wednesday.

The 2018-19 Cougars’ 13 nonconference wins are the most in program history, and this current iteration seems poised to do extensive damage this season with its blend of ample experience and burgeoning youth.

The nonconference schedule was designed to take advantage of what the Cougars had to offer.

“We’ve researched the teams,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We just don’t grab the phone and start calling people. Norfolk State had five starters back from a team that went to the NCAA Tournament. Rob Senderoff is the all-time winningest coach in the history of Kent State and he has his best team coming back. So we knew how good Kent State was, we knew how good Norfolk State was.

“Colorado State won at Saint Mary’s and Northern Colorado won at Colorado State. They’ve (Northern Colorado) got the player of the year in that league back and their entire starting backcourt.

“If you go down the list of the teams that we scheduled, we do this every year. People are always going to have comments about your schedule but you don’t pay attention to what they say because they don’t know what they don’t know. We do.”

That attention to detail has yielded a Cougars team poised to claim another conference crown, a group thriving off the balance provided by four starters averaging approximately nine-plus points per game: senior guard Marcus Sasser (16.0), freshman forward Jarace Walker (9.5), sophomore guard Tramon Mark (9.1) and junior forward J’Wan Roberts (8.9). Junior guard Jamal Shead averages 7.6 points and a team-high 5.8 assists while Roberts leads the Cougars by averaging 7.2 rebounds.

Tulsa had limited three consecutive opponents below 40-percent shooting before Loyola Marymount shot 45.6 percent, including 23 of 39 inside the arc, in a 76-64 road loss on Wednesday. Much of the Lions’ success came via converting 16 offensive rebounds into 18 second-chance points.

“We’ve talked about that our first-shot defense is getting better and better,” Tulsa coach Eric Konkol said. “We’ve got to be able to make it just one shot (allowed per possession). If we can clean up that rebounding more and more consistently, we can see those numbers drop even more, which would be a good thing.”

Showcasing vulnerability on the defensive boards is especially worrisome against the Cougars, who are annually one of the top offensive rebounding programs in the nation and were ranked 16th nationally entering Tuesday in grabbing 13.6 offensive boards per game. Completing a defensive trip with a rebound is a foremost goal for the Golden Hurricane, who are well aware of all the Cougars bring to the table as a highly-ranked national program for several years running.

“They’re obviously off to a great start and have been a really good program now for a number of years,” Konkol said of the Cougars. “We’re looking forward to that being our next home game.”

–Field Level Media

No. 12 Baylor will look to build on a four-game winning streak and keep some momentum rolling when it hosts Nicholls State on Wednesday in Waco, Texas, in its final tune-up for its upcoming Big 12 Conference gauntlet.

The Bears (9-2) have been off since Dec. 20 when they handled feisty Northwestern State 58-48 at home behind a balanced offensive attack led by Jalen Bridges’ 13 points and seven rebounds along with some key defensive stops through the midway part of the second half.

The win, Baylor’s only game of the week, allowed the Bears to stay in 12th in the latest rankings.

Baylor led by just two points at halftime but forged a decisive 14-0 run over a 4 1/2-minute span early in the second half to create some separation. The Bears then secured the win at the free-throw line, with Langston Love and Caleb Lohner making two late foul shots each and Lohner ending things with a dunk with 1:02 to play.

“Second half, I thought our shot selection was better,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “We had some good looks on 3s, and if we have good looks and miss them, I can live with that. We just have to get rebounds. And for them to (outscore us 16-14 in second-chance points), that’s not acceptable. That’s not good enough.”

Dale Bonner and LJ Cryer added 11 points apiece for the Bears in the victory. Baylor played without guard Adam Flagler, who was sick. The Bears shot just 38.9 percent from the floor.

Bridges canned two 3-pointers after having missed 19 of 20 shots from distance in his previous seven games.

“This is easily the worst I’ve ever shot,” said Bridges, who transferred from West Virginia in the offseason. “But every day, my teammates lifted me up, telling me to keep shooting, have faith in myself, believe in myself. And that’s really all you could ask for in a group of guys. So, every time I was open, I just let it fly.”

The Colonels (6-6) head to Waco after a dominating 90-46 win at home over Trinity Baptist College on Dec. 19. Nicholls State, which was playing its third game in five days and coming off a 68-66 loss at then-No. 17 Mississippi State on the road, was none the worse for the wear in rolling to a 53-12 lead at halftime and waltzing to its third win in its past four games.

It was the Colonels’ third home win this season by at least 40 points.

Caleb Huffman paced Nicholls State with 19 points while hitting 8-of-9 shots from the floor. Lance-Amir Paul added 13 points while Marek Nelson and Latrell Jones scored 12 points and Manny Littles racked up 10 points and took 16 rebounds.

The Colonels hit 50 percent of its field goals including 10 of their 25 attempts from beyond the arc and forced 22 turnovers they converted into 26 points in the win.

“We are growing — these last three weeks after the second half against UC Irvine — we’ve been playing incredible basketball,” Nicholls State coach Austin Claunch said. “We’ve been team-based and we’ve been doing a lot of really good things that are going to transfer over into team play.”

–Field Level Media

The Georgia Bulldogs will look to close their nonconference schedule with their sixth win in seven games against the visiting Rider Broncs on Wednesday in Athens, Ga.

The Bulldogs (9-3) haven’t played since rallying for a 72-65 win over visiting Chattanooga on Dec. 21. Rider (5-5) hasn’t played since Dec. 22, when the Broncs knocked off visiting Marist 77-71 for their fourth win in their past five games.

Georgia already has easily surpassed its win total from last year and is off to a strong start under first-year coach Mike White, who arrived after leading Florida for seven seasons. He replaced Tom Crean, who was let go after the Bulldogs went 6-26 last season.

Georgia’s Kario Oquendo scored 22 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:48 remaining, to lift the Bulldogs over the Mocs.

Oquendo, who averages a team-high 14 points per game, shot 7 of 11 from the field, including 2 of 5 from 3-point range, to go along with two steals. Terry Roberts, the team’s second-leading scorer at 13.8 points per game, added 14 points and six assists.

Braelen Bridges chipped in 12 points and two steals, with Jailyn Ingram finishing with 10 points off the bench.

The Bulldogs ended the game on a 17-5 run after trailing 60-55 with 6:19 left.

“Resilience and mental toughness, a little bit of poise but we need a lot more poise,” White said. “Really proud of the fight down the stretch. The confidence and swagger offensively down the stretch of Kario Oquendo, I thought he was fantastic.”

Rider saw its nine-point lead with 13:28 remaining cut to 67-66 with 2:51 to go before ending the game on a 10-5 run.

Mervin James, who averages 12.2 points and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game, had a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Allen Betrand added a team-high 19 points to go along with two rebounds and two steals. Dwight Murray Jr., who averages a team-high 19.3 points per game, added 17 points and five rebounds.

Zahrion Blue came off the bench to score seven points, including four in the second half, to go along with four rebounds.

“I’ve been preaching we have to get more productivity off the bench,” Rider coach Kevin Baggett said. “The better we are with the guys on the bench, the better we are as a team.”

–Field Level Media

After a brief two-game road trip to the West Coast, No. 20 Auburn kicks off Southeastern Conference play Wednesday looking to build off one of its top performances of the season when it plays host to Florida.

Following a 74-71 loss to Southern California on Dec. 18, Bruce Pearl’s team dominated Washington 84-61 three nights later. Auburn (10-2) got 18 points each from Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome, shot 55.9 percent from the field (33 of 59), including 47.1 percent (8 of 17) from 3-point range, and outscored the Huskies 53-38 in the second half to secure the victory.

The Tigers also won the rebounding battle 42-24 and limited Washington to 36.8 percent (21 of 57) shooting from the floor, including 25 percent (5 of 20) from behind the arc.

“It was a really good road win against a Pac-12 club, and it was everybody,” Pearl said. “Our inside guys did great, our guards did great, we made shots, we defended. Our guys should feel good about the progress we made on this trip because I thought we played better at USC too.”

Broome has scored in double figures in six straight games for Auburn and he’s averaging 12.2 points and a team-leading 8.2 rebounds through 12 games. Broome is one of the top shot blockers in the country at 2.8 per game and is hot on the heels of Wendell Green Jr., who has averaged a team-leading 12.6 points.

Williams is one of Auburn’s best defenders, but his offense has come alive of late. Over his last three games, the forward has averaged 15.3 points, providing Pearl with much-needed oomph on offense.

Backup true freshman guard Tre Donaldson has seen his role increase with Green nursing an ankle injury. In the loss to USC, Donaldson had season highs in points (12) and steals (four). In the win over Washington, he had a season-high seven assists.

Florida (7-5) is looking to get back into the win column following a 62-53 loss to Oklahoma in the Jumpman Invitational at Charlotte, N.C.

If the Gators expect to upset Auburn on the road, they will have to shoot the ball better. Against the Sooners, Florida shot 32.8 percent (20 of 61) from the floor and went 2 of 22 (9.1 percent) from 3-point range.

Starters Trey Bonham (10.2 points), Kyle Lofton (8.4 points, 3.9 assists), Will Richard (10.7 points, 4.1 rebounds) and Alex Fudge (8.2 points, 5.4 boards) were a combined 8 of 32 from the field and 1 of 15 behind the arc against the Sooners, one of the nation’s top defensive teams.

“I thought we competed well, which is something we’ve emphasized getting better at,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said. “But to beat a good team you have to make shots.”

One positive for the Gators against Oklahoma was the play of big man Colin Castleton, who had 22 points and eight rebounds on 8-of-15 shooting. He enters the matchup with Auburn averaging 15.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game.

–Field Level Media

No. 18 TCU will look to build on its impressive winning streak when it hosts Central Arkansas on Wednesday at Fort Worth, Texas, in its final tune-up before Big 12 play.

The Horned Frogs (10-1) have won eight straight games, most recently a 75-71 victory at Utah on Dec. 21. Emanuel Miller led TCU with season-high 21 points, with Mike Miles Jr. adding 18, Chuck O’Bannon hitting for 10 points and Eddie Lampkin grabbing 10 rebounds.

TCU improved from 20th to No. 18 in the latest poll.

The Horned Frogs were up 35-29 at halftime and never led by more than 10 before Utah rallied to tie the game three times over the middle of the second half. But TCU never surrendered the lead, even though it didn’t make a field goal over the final four minutes of the game.

JaKobe Coles went 6 of 6 from the free-throw line in the final 2:08 to close out the four-point victory.

“Obviously, first half, we set the tone,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We were up five, but (Utah) came out as we told (our players it would). They were going to come out, go hit, bang, and go crash the glass. For whatever reason, we just got buried underneath in the second half, and that’s how they came back.”

The Horned Frogs forced Utah into a season-high 19 turnovers (12 of them steals), turned those mistakes into 23 points and won the battle in the paint 46-28. With 10 turnovers, TCU improved to 8-1 on the season when committing 15 or less turnovers.

“That’s where our improvement is this year,” Dixon explained. “We’re forcing more turnovers, getting out in transition because of them. We’re one of the best transition teams in the country as far as transition baskets.”

The Bears (5-7) head to Fort Worth after a 75-66 loss at Little Rock on Dec. 20 and an eight-day break for Christmas. Camren Hunter led Central Arkansas with 17 points, including three 3-pointers, while Collin Cooper added 16 and Eddy Kayouloud, the Bears’ lone senior, scored 15 in the defeat.

“It was really the first half that lost us the game,” Central Arkansas coach Anthony Boone said after the loss. “Even though we came back and got the lead, if we could have controlled the glass in the first half I think we could have built a nice lead. But we just came out and we weren’t tough enough.

“Overall we played pretty good defense and our half-court defense was great at times. We like to switch a lot, and the guys were doing a great job of that, talking, communicating. We just couldn’t finish off our possessions.”

Central Arkansas has dropped three straight games and four of its past five, including setbacks at Oklahoma, Oral Roberts and Loyola Chicago.

The two programs have never met on the basketball court.

–Field Level Media

Eastern Oregon’s trip to Spokane last season on Halloween turned into the “Nightmare on Cincinnati Street.”

Not only were the NAIA’s Mountaineers facing the nation’s No. 1 team in Gonzaga, but they were doing so in the first game Zags fans were allowed back in the McCarthey Athletic Center following the previous season’s COVID-19 restrictions.

The teams will meet again Wednesday afternoon in the No. 10 Bulldogs’ final nonconference game before beginning West Coast Conference play. While last season’s game was an exhibition contest, this one will be a part of the regular season for the Bulldogs though it won’t count on Eastern Oregon’s record.

Gonzaga gave their fans a treat with a 115-62 victory last season against Eastern Oregon as Julian Strawther led six Zags in double digits with 18 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds. Gonzaga’s five starters played between 17 and 22 minutes.

“That was a pretty crazy experience for us,” Eastern Oregon coach Chris Kemp recalled in a phone interview. “But it kind of turned into a nightmare.”

Just five minutes into the game, EOU guard Max McCullough, the Mountaineers’ three-time NAIA Division II All-America honoree, suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament that knocked him out for the rest of the season. His backup, Paul Pennington, dislocated his elbow early in the second half and the Mountaineers had another player who took 10 stitches above an eye.

“It was kind of a blur after that. We were just scrambling,” Kemp said. “That altered our season.”

Needless to say, Kemp is a bit cautious about another trip to Gonzaga.

“I told everyone all summer we wouldn’t go back, then they called and offered a bunch of money and we couldn’t say no,” Kemp said. “Our guys are excited; it’s a great experience … I’m more nervous.”

The Mountaineers (7-4) lost 90-54 at Boise State on Dec. 6 in their only other game against a Division I team this season. That loss also was an exhibition for the Mountaineers.

But Kemp said going to Gonzaga is different. He recalled that his 7-year-old daughter, Aubrey, was in his wife’s arms during the game last year because she had never been anywhere as loud as the Zags’ home arena.

“She told me this year she wants ear protection,” Kemp said.

The Bulldogs (10-3), who have faced five Top 25 opponents in nonconference play, are coming off an 85-75 victory against Montana on Dec. 20.

It was Gonzaga’s 72nd straight home victory, the longest streak since the expansion of the NCAA Tournament in 1985.

“That’s crazy. Obviously that’s something that no one can really say they’ve ever done,” said All-American Drew Timme, who had a season-high 32 points to go with 11 rebounds. “It’s a testament to coach (Mark Few) and how he’s ran the ship and he’s always consistent.

“We didn’t have ‘The Kennel,'” Timme added, referring to the student section that was largely empty because of winter break, “and this place was still rocking.”

The Grizzlies trimmed a 17-point, second-half deficit to five with a little more than three minutes remaining before Gonzaga regained control.

“(Timme) made some big free throws and just like all year, we’ve been running everything through him pretty much,” Few said. “A lot of our offense is generated through throwing it into him.”

–Field Level Media