Hogs look to end skid in Aggieland

Arkansas coach Mike Anderson directs his team against Missouri Saturday, Jan. 14, 2017, during the second half in Bud Walton Arena.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson has won basketball games in 17 arenas across the SEC and Big 12 in his 16 seasons leading the Razorbacks and Missouri Tigers.

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Texas A&M's Reed Arena isn't one of them.

Anderson's conference road victories include games at Kentucky, Texas, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Alabama and Ole Miss. But his teams are 0-6 against the Aggies at their place.

The six losses at Texas A&M -- three each with Missouri and Arkansas -- are the most Anderson has suffered at one venue without a victory. His Missouri teams were 0-5 at Kansas and Kansas State.

Anderson and the Razorbacks (13-4, 2-3 SEC) will try again for that elusive victory at Reed Arena when Arkansas plays the Aggies (9-7, 1-4) at 6 tonight in College Station, Texas.

"We just haven't played well there, and they've had a lot to do with that," Anderson said. "They've had good teams."

Four of Anderson's losses at Texas A&M have come against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament, including two that reached the Sweet 16 -- 2007 and last season with records of 27-7 and 28-9, respectively. The two non-NCAA Tournament A&M teams that beat Anderson's Razorbacks at Reed Arena each won 18 games.

Arkansas' last road victory against Texas A&M came on Feb. 23, 1991 at G. Rollie White Coliseum -- where the Aggies played in 1954-1998 before Reed Arena opened -- when the Razorbacks won 111-72 in their final season in the Southwest Conference.

Anderson was an Razorbacks assistant coach then for Nolan Richardson.

"We know the statistics," Arkansas junior guard Anton Beard said of Anderson's 0-6 record at Reed Arena as a head coach. "But that's not our mindset going into the game.

"We're just going into it like it's another game. We're going to go down there and play our hardest and try to come out with a win."

The closest Anderson has come to beating the Aggies at Reed Arena was Missouri's 91-89 overtime loss in 2011.

Texas A&M has beaten Arkansas by an average of 19 points at Reed Arena under Anderson, including 92-69 last season to open SEC play.

Razorbacks junior guard said Daryl Macon said it would be "very big" to win at Texas A&M, but that the players aren't focused on winning one for Anderson.

"We're not going to look at Coach A hasn't won there," Macon said. "We're going to look at it as we need this big road win as a team."

Texas A&M lost four starters from last season's SEC championship team -- Danuel House, Jalen Jones, Alex Caruso and Anthony Collins -- but the Aggies were picked third behind Kentucky and Florida in a preseason poll at the conference's media days because of strong back-to-back recruiting classes signed by Coach Billy Kennedy.

So far, the Aggies' heralded sophomores and freshmen have struggled in SEC play with their only victory 92-62 over LSU.

Kennedy said the team's returning players -- led by sophomores Tyler Davis, T.J. Hogg and Admon Gilder -- haven't been challenged in practice the way they were by last season's seniors and are adjusting to having larger roles.

"We have to just grow up," Kennedy said. "We're immature in some spots on the court and off the court.

"These kids went from being role players on a really, really good team with four seniors to now they're the main guys. They're learning their responsibilities are different."

Turnovers have been Texas A&M's biggest problem, especially in SEC play.

The Aggies are minus-10.6 in turnovers in SEC games with 103 turnovers -- including 25 at Kentucky and South Carolina -- compared to 50 by their opponents.

Texas A&M had 22 turnovers in its 67-59 loss at Mississippi State on Saturday, including 15 in the first half when Gilder didn't play for disciplinary reasons.

Gilder, who played 17 minutes in the second half at Mississippi State to help the Aggies limit their turnovers to seven, has been the team's primary point guard this season.

Freshman J.J. Caldwell -- rated a top 100 player nationally last year by most recruiting services -- was expected to compete for a starting job at point guard, but in late September the NCAA ruled him academically ineligible for this season.

"It definitely hurt us," Kennedy said. "That's just reality."

Kennedy said Arkansas' ability to play pressure defense and force turnovers is a concern for tonight's game.

"We're giving the other team the ball and I give them credit a lot of times, but sometimes it's just us not being tough enough with the ball," Kennedy said. "If we don't do that against Arkansas, it'll be tough for us to win even at home."

The Aggies' SEC opponents have outscored them 120-61 in points off turnovers.

"I feel like our pressure can get to them," Beard said. "But they're a pretty good team, so we can't get greedy with trying to just steal the ball.

"We have to pressure up on them and keep pressuring them until they give it to us. That's where I feel like we can get them."

Anderson said he's sure Kennedy has emphasized taking care of the ball in practice, but he hopes the Razorbacks can force a fast pace.

"We want to speed them up," Anderson said. "Our mindset is to make them play the way we want to play.

"We want to disrupt them. We can't let them just get comfortable."

Sports on 01/17/2017