Information from Arkansas Communications is in this story.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The team walking into Bud Walton Arena on Wednesday night comes from the same Pennsylvania town where John Calipari went to high school.
Robert Morris visits Arkansas for a 7 p.m. CT tip on Nolan Richardson Court. The Colonials are 0-2 and still looking for their first win. Arkansas is 1-1 and sits at No. 19 in one poll and No. 20 in the other.
The Robert Morris campus is in Moon Township, Pa., about 15 to 20 miles west of Pittsburgh. If you’ve ever flown into Pittsburgh International Airport, you’ve landed in Moon Township.
Calipari graduated from Moon Area High School in 1978. He’s coached against Robert Morris three times, all of them at Kentucky, and he’s 2-1 in those games.
Yes, the Colonials beat him once. You won’t find that one in the highlight package.
The Razorbacks mostly want a cleaner night than the one they had last weekend. They couldn’t get much going against Virginia in Washington, D.C., and a winless team coming to Fayetteville is a decent spot to start fixing that.
Arkansas won the only other meeting
These programs have played once. Arkansas beat Robert Morris 79-74 on Dec. 20, 2012, which was almost 14 years ago and long before anyone on either roster was in college.
The Hogs couldn’t buy a 3 that night and finished 4-of-18 from deep. They were just as shaky at the free-throw line, going 13-of-26.
They got away with it by hitting 52.5% of their shots from the field. Robert Morris shot 36.4%.
Even with that gap, the Colonials hung around. Arkansas led by a point at the half and didn’t go ahead for good until 15:30 was left in the game.
This year’s Razorbacks have a shooter who could keep the 3-point line from looking that ugly. Jeremiah Wilkinson leads the SEC with seven made 3-pointers, and he’s only had two games to do it.
Maper Maker and Billy Richmond III have been busy on the other end. Each one has five blocks, which puts them in a tie for fourth in the league.
Conference play is still a ways off for both sides. Robert Morris is 0-0 in the Horizon League, and Arkansas hasn’t played an SEC game yet.
How to watch and what’s next
SEC Network+ and the ESPN app have the stream. Brett Dolan calls the action, with Manuale Watkins as the analyst.
Chuck Barrett and Matt Zimmerman have the radio call on the Learfield Razorback Sports Network. That broadcast also runs on Sirius/XM Channel 81 for anybody listening on the road.
Fans can also listen to the game here at HitThatLine.com using the black bar below in select broadcast markets and 93.7 and 99.5 in Fayetteville, 95.3 in Fort Smith and the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.
Bud Walton Arena holds 19,200 fans. After the weekend in D.C., the Hogs could use a good chunk of them to be there on a Wednesday square in the middle of the week.
Arkansas doesn’t leave home for its next game either. Central Arkansas comes to town Friday, Nov. 13, for a 7 p.m. tip on SEC Network+.
After that, the Razorbacks fly to New York to face Indiana at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 17. The game is part of the Bad Boy Mowers Series in New York, and the Hogs will want that trip to go better than the last one to the nation’s capital.
New York can wait a few days. Robert Morris comes first.
