Kentucky / Arkansas Preview Part 1: Player Impact

The Kentucky Wildcats(17-1) host the Arkansas Razorbacks(13-4) tomorrow night in Rupp Arena at 9pm.

Arkansas is 2-1 in the SEC, with their lone loss coming at the hands of Ole Miss 71-63.

The Razorbacks are 0-3 on the road this season, with losses to the Rebels, UCONN, and Oklahoma.

The Kentucky Wildcats come back to Rupp Arena after a 2 game conference road trip and look to keep the NCAA's longest home winning streak alive.

Lets look at a couple of matchups that could be key to the outcome.

• Arkansas' second leading scoring on the season is freshman point guard B.J. Young. Young is averaging 15 points a game, which is 19.51% of his team's scoring. Marquis Teague did an impressive job of shutting down Tennessee's Trae Golden, which was the Vols' leading scorer, to just 2 points Saturday. Teague will have to emulate his defensive performance again Tuesday night as Young is a definite future SEC star.
• The Razorback starting frontcourt does not have a player taller than 6'8," and their rebounding totals are a total contrast of Kentucky. Junior Marshawn Powell leads Mike Anderson's squad with 6 rebounds per game, which is only a total of 12 rebounds. Powell is coming off a knee injury, but has been a proven SEC forward the last couple of years. Powell averaged 7 rebounds a game last season. Anthony Davis has 183 total rebounds for 10.1 a game. The Cats have not rebounded very well the last several games and if they can't grab more boards than the 'Backs on Tuesday, it will be a lot closer game than it should be.
• Darius Miller's 4 point performance Saturday has dipped him to averaging 9.77 points a game this season, which leaves the Cats with only 5 players averaging double figures. Arkansas only has 3 players in double figures and if Miller was on Arkansas he would be the third leading scorer on the team.(including Powell's 19.5 ppg in 2 games) Ricky Scott is the third leading scorer with 9.70. Miller's output is 12.33% of Kentucky's scoring and Scott's is 12.62%.
• Arkansas definitely has a bench advantage, having had 9 players play in all 17 games. They also have 10 players averaging at least 4.5ppg on the season. Seven Kentucky players have appeared in every game, with 7 players averaging 6 points or more on the year.

Check out the Player Impact charts for both teams(scroll over to see the percentages)