Alabama's matchup on Wednesday night at home against Arkansas carries a lot of intrigue for a variety of reasons. The Crimson Tide and Razorbacks are neck-and-neck in the SEC standings as well as in NCAA Tournament projections.
Each team also happens to have one of the best guards in college basketball leading the way.
Alabama's Labaron Philon and Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr. are two of the leading candidates for SEC Player of the Year. They also rank second and third, respectively, in scoring, just percentage points behind Mississippi State's Josh Hubbard.
They also happen to be projected first-round picks in the NBA Draft. You can bet that plenty of NBA scouts will be in Coleman on Wednesday night to see the two future pros do battle.
It would be tempting for either player to get lost in a one-on-one matchup. To try to show the country that they are the better player. That could easily come at the expense of proper team basketball, which is what Nate Oats is guarding against the day before the game with a pointed message to his star point guard.
"He doesn't need to outscore Acuff," Oats said of Philon. "If that happens, that happens. He needs to lead his team to a win."
Nate Oats wants Labaron Philon focused on winning - not Darius Acuff
This is a huge matchup for Alabama. The Crimson Tide will head into the Top 25 showdown barely ahead of the Hogs in Joe Lunardi's latest bracketology update. Alabama - at No. 16 - is the last 4-seed in the bracket. Arkansas - at No. 18 - is just behind and could jump the Tide and knock them down a full seed line with a win in Tuscaloosa.
Arkansas also happens to be one game ahead of Alabama in the SEC standings. The Razorbacks are 9-3 in conference, with the Crimson Tide at 8-4. Everyone is chasing Florida, and while catching the Gators might not be a realistic goal for Alabama, securing one of the top four spots in the league standings to secure a double-bye in the SEC Tournament is more than attainable.
Beating Arkansas would go a long way toward securing that.
To do so, Alabama is going to need Philon at his absolute best. They'll need him to be a point guard, to make the right reads and right plays, and not focus on his head-to-head battle with Acuff.
As Oats has said all season long, if you focus on the right things, good things follow. If Philon does that and Alabama wins, he'll likely have had the better game anyway.