FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas hopes to become the first women's basketball team to beat Mississippi State this season.
The No. 14 Bulldogs (17-0, 2-0 SEC) are off to their best start ever going into tonight's game against the Razorbacks (10-4, 0-2) at Humphrey Coliseum. Tipoff is 8 p.m., and the game will be telecast by Fox Sports Net telecast.
Mississippi State -- ranked in the top 15 nationally for the first time in 12 years, since ending the 2002-03 season at No. 13 -- has beaten its opponents by an average of 29 points.
"They're crushing people," Arkansas Coach Jimmy Dykes said. "They're one of the hottest teams out there. There's really no weakness right now on that ballclub. They're legit."
Mississippi State Coach Vic Schaefer, a former Arkansas assistant, has 11 players averaging between 25.9 and 9.1 minutes and between 15.2 and 4.4 points.
"Vic's got depth right now," Dykes said. "There's not much drop-off.
"They've got multiple kids that can score from the three, from the mid-range to the layups. They really don't have anybody that's a one-dimensional player that you can either back off of or really crowd up to and make them put it on the floor.
"Guys that come in off the bench can go for 12 or 15 points if you're not careful. Defensively, they really pressure you."
Mississippi State 6-1 freshman Victoria Vivians is averaging a team-high 15.2 points, but 5-5 senior guard Jerica James from North Little Rock High School is averaging 11.0 points in SEC games to lead the Bulldogs.
James scored a career-high 17 points in Mississippi State's 53-47 victory at Missouri last Sunday.
"Any time you face a kid that is from Arkansas and is not wearing the Arkansas jersey, you know that, man, they're going to bring it," Dykes said. "This game will have extra attention on her heart, I'm sure."
Arkansas, ranked No. 25 earlier this season after a 7-0 start, has lost its first two SEC games at Ole Miss 71-57 and against No. 5 Texas A&M 52-50 at home when Aggies forward Achiri scored on a putback at the buzzer.
Dykes said the Razorbacks played hard against Texas A&M but didn't play their best game -- something they have to do to win tonight.
"We're still a really good basketball team with a really hard schedule in front of us," said Dykes, whose Razorbacks play No. 7 Tennessee on Sunday in Walton Arena. "There is no letup."
Dykes said Arkansas remains a confident team.
"When Texas A&M came in here ranked fifth and we were right there with them, but we don't have that much margin for error," he said. "We have to play really well, but when we do, we can play with anyone.
"When we don't, we can get beat by anyone."
Schafer was at Arkansas when Aggies Coach Gary Blair coached the Razorbacks, and Dykes said Mississippi State and Texas A&M have similar styles.
"You'll see a lot of the offensive tendencies of Mississippi State are right out of Gary Blair's playbook, so maybe that helps us a little bit in our preparation," Dykes said. "But their players are different, and at some of those spots they have better players than Texas A&M."
Sports on 01/08/2015