TV: ESPN2, 8 PM CT

That odd sound you hear coming from the Erwin Center isn’t actually a pig call. It’s really a celebratory cry after another welfare check is succesfully cashed. And with an intro like that, there can only be one team in town to face the Horns tonight — the hated Arkansas Razorbacks, and their unwashed fans. They’re a lot like Sooners, only fatter.

As for the basketball, it should be a fun game. For Texas, it provides another chance to beat a high-quality RPI opponent and pad the March resume. Arkansas is currently ranked 20th in Ken Pomeroy’s RPI approximation, despite getting manhandled by Missouri earlier this season and Texas Tech in Little Rock last weekend.

The Tech win is a little bit misleading, as a look inside the numbers will reveal. The Red Raiders shot lights out in the game, hitting at a 54.3% clip, including 6-of-10 from behind the arc. Arkansas, on the other hand, took nearly half of their shots from three-point land and had a success rate below the Mendoza line. The Pigs were 3-for-21 on threes, or 14.3% successful.

Arkansas has a much bigger team than the Texas State squad the Horns beat up on, but it may not make a huge difference in the rebounding department. Seven-footer Steven Hill provides quality minutes off the bench for the Razorbacks, averaging just over a half of play per game, but is only averaging 2.7 boards. Something doesn’t quite add up for this guy, and fortunately for Texas the sum is a giant with piss-poor rebounding skills. Darian Townes and Vincent Hunter are both 6-10 guys but generally useless on the glass. They also come off the pine for Arkansas and average roughly seventeen minutes a game.

Offensively, Texas will have to deal with star freshman Patrick Beverley. He leads the team in scoring, but struggled in the win over West Virginia and the loss to Texas Tech. His scoring average comes mostly from dropping 29 points in the opener against Southeast Missouri State and another nineteen on Oakland. Other than those two games, he has yet to truly show the talent he possesses. Hopefully it doesn’t come out tonight at the Drum.

Texas should be able to get their share of transition baskets in this game. With Barnes’ focus on defense, plus a Razorback team that averages 17.8 turnovers a game — yes, you read that right — Texas should get a fair number of chances at pushing the tempo. And fortunately for the Horns, the teams that have been able to do that against Arkansas have found success.

As always, the keys for Texas are Kevin Durant, rebounding, and quality minutes from their inside men. I can’t help but think that Durant will bounce back from his shockingly mortal game against Texas State. As for rebounding, the lack of skill possessed by the Razorback big men will likely cancel out their height advantages. And if the past few games are any indication, we should see more quality time from Connor Atchley and a few solid minutes from Pittman as well. Only time will tell how Matt Hill does against the Pigs, but I don’t think his contributions will be as key as Atchley’s.

I think Texas can win this in front of a home crowd with a team still riding high from the LSU upset. Keep your eyes on A.J. Abrams to see how he bounces back from Saturday’s rough outing. And as always, look for great things from our exciting freshmen D.J. Augustin and Justin Mason.

UT announced today that there were still 2,200 tickets available as of 10:30 this morning. So if you’re in town, get yourself out to the Erwin Center and help to revive this old rivalry. I can still remember being at the last home game against them in 1991 and the atmosphere and mutual hatred was amazing. With any luck, by the end of this four-year contract we can get the series back to where it was under Tom “Fake-Bake” Penders and Nolan Richardson.

Tip’s at 8 P.M. Hope to see you there.