ESPN predicts the winner of Saturday’s Alabama vs. Arkansas basketball game

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The Alabama Crimson Tide had a midweek bye after last Saturday’s 90-69 blowout win over the Georgia Bulldogs at Coleman Coliseum.

The Crimson Tide (19-3 overall, 8-1 SEC), ranked No. 3 in this week’s Top 25 college basketball polls, head to unfriendly territory for a primetime matchup against John Calipari’s Arkansas Razorbacks Saturday night at Bud Walton Arena.

They’ll face an Arkansas team coming off back-to-back upset wins on the road. The Razorbacks defeated Kentucky 89-79 last Saturday at Rupp Arena and then downed the Texas Longhorns 78-70 in Austin on Wednesday.

Ahead of Alabama vs. Arkansas, ESPN Analytics’ Matchup Predictor, which offers a prediction model based on its Men’s College Basketball Power Index ratings, gave the Crimson Tide a 67.8 percent chance to beat Arkansas.

Alabama moved up to No. 5 in ESPN’s BPI (19.3), one spot behind the Tennessee Volunteers (19.5) and one spot ahead of the Arizona Wildcats (19.1). ESPN defines its BPI ratings as a “measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is.”

In the Crimson Tide’s 21-point win over Georgia, Mark Sears had 20 points to go with five rebounds and six assists. Grant Nelson added 16 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks.

Tip off for Alabama vs. Arkansas is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT Saturday night in Fayetteville. The game will be televised on ESPN.

RELATED: New tipoff time announced for Alabama basketball game vs. Arkansas

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This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama given good odds of beating Arkansas, John Calipari, per ESPN

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/espn-predicts-winner-saturdays-alabama-190152543.html

Author : Roll Tide Wire

Publish date : 2025-02-06 19:01:00

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