KU basketball’s opponent in Saturday’s NCAA Round of 32 will be No. 8 seed Arkansas
Arkansas, a Southeastern Conference school that has played Kansas just once in men’s basketball in the 20-year Bill Self era, will be the Jayhawks’ opponent Saturday in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 at Wells Fargo Arena.
The Razorbacks, the No. 8 seed in the West Regional, improved to 21-13 on the season by defeating No. 9 seed Illinois 73-63 in a first-round contest on Thursday.
Junior guard Ricky Council scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while junior guard Davonte Davis scored 16 points and secured six rebounds in the Razorbacks’ victory.
Freshman guard Anthony Black totaled 12 points and six rebounds for an Arkansas team that outrebounded the Illini 43-34. Arkansas hit 38.1% of its shots including going 3-of-11 from three. Arkansas hit 22 of 29 free throws to Illinois’ 17 of 26.
Illinois hit 38.5% of its shots and was 6-of-22 from three.
KU, which is 8-5 all-time against Arkansas, lost to the Razorbacks 65-64 on Nov, 22, 2005 in the consolation round of the Maui Invitational in Hawaii. That was the last meeting between the teams.
KU defeated the Razorbacks 93-81 in an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game on March 23, 1991, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Arkansas is coached by Eric Musselman.
Both KU and Arkansas will hold news conferences on Friday in advance of Saturday’s game. Tipoff on Saturday will be 4:15 p.m. CT.
This story was originally published March 16, 2023 at 7:52 PM.
