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FAYETTEVILLE — Superman isn’t walking through the doors, and no one needs to be Clark Kent.
At least that’s the case if everyone on the University of Arkansas men’s basketball team has a good game, associate head coach Chin Coleman said Friday.
“There’s not one player on our team that can go into the phone booth, put on a cape, come out and be Superman and win the game for us,” Coleman said. “We need contributions from everybody. … If everyone is good, no one has to be great.”
Arkansas got zero points from its three big men in its 67-61 loss to No. 1 Auburn. The Razorbacks need contributions from everyone, as Coach John Calipari and his staff have said throughout the season, in order to compete in the SEC. Get that and no one needs to be a superhero.
Arkansas (15-11, 4-9 SEC) has another opportunity when it hosts No. 15 Missouri at 7 p.m. Saturday at Walton Arena. The Tigers (20-6, 9-4) enter the Natural State riding three consecutive wins, including a 110-98 victory Wednesday over No. 4 Alabama in Columbia, Mo.
Missouri beat Arkansas 83-65 on Jan. 18 in Columbia the last time they played. Missouri went 0-18 in the SEC last season, including two losses to Arkansas, but are tied for fourth in the expanded 16-team league. Three of the Tigers’ four losses in conference play have come against foes currently ranked in the top seven of the Associated Press poll.
“They’re all in it together and it’s the power of their team, the power of the friendship and the love of their team. You can see how together they are. It’s the power of togetherness,” Coleman said of Missouri.
The Tigers enter what many would consider to be a trap game against a Razorbacks team on the NCAA Tournament bubble, but Coach Dennis Gates — who was named to the Naismith Men’s College Coach of the Year watch list on Friday — has largely kept his team ready for such occasions throughout their rise this season.
“Every single one we’ve treated the exact same. We’ve not changed anything as it relates to how we attack our practices, our film study, our day-to-day operations,” Gates said. “But it’s not going to change anything that we haven’t seen internally. We know our potential, and you guys laugh at me when I say we have not played up to that potential yet. I truly believe we haven’t even touched it.”
Gates was also complimentary of Calipari’s Razorbacks.
“They’re not on the bubble. They’re an NCAA Tournament team. They’re top 25 in my eyes, and in our team’s eyes,” he said. “I don’t know nothing about a bubble. I know nothing about it. They’re an NCAA Tournament team, top 10 in America.”
In ESPN bracket analyst Joe Lunardi’s projection released Friday, Arkansas would be the last team in and face Virginia Commonwealth in a first four game in Dayton, Ohio.
In order to get there, whether the Razorbacks meet Gates’ description or not, they need to win games.
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The Razorbacks are on a two-game skid, with their last win a 70-58 victory over LSU on Feb. 12, and have dropped three of their past four games.
Arkansas has battled, playing close with Auburn, Texas A&M and Alabama — Nos. 1, 7 and 4, respectively, in the current AP poll — but falling short in each game.
The Razorbacks have put up a fight in each of those games and lost by single digits in each, but they need to “beat somebody,” as Calipari said after the Texas A&M loss, to get into the NCAA Tournament.
“Our guys haven’t let go of the rope. Our guys still believe,” Coleman said. “Our guys are preparing everyday to win every game. It’s one game at a time. We don’t take any moral victories from those games. We are trying to win those games and of course, as the score will show, we came up short obviously in terms of winning the game. But what we’ve talked about and some of the things that we’re going to emphasize and focus on is that we finish the process.”
The Razorbacks, with or without Superman, head into Saturday in search of the all-important marquee win. Missouri presents another chance for that mark.
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“I think it’s important to let the players know when the stakes are high, right? And the stakes are high at this point right now,” Coleman said. “Coach has done a good job of laying out what’s in front of us and what’s the end goal if we take care of our business. I think that it’s important that your players have some skin in the game, right? It’s important for them to know what’s at stake.”