What Nate Oats Needs From Labaron Philon In 'Big Guard Matchup' Against Arkansas

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- No. 25 Alabama tries to extend its winning streak to five on Wednesday as the Crimson Tide hosts No. 20 Arkansas in a pivotal SEC matchup. The Razorbacks have won six of their last seven matchups, sit a game ahead of Alabama in the conference standings, and have the classic look of a John Calipari squad.

Calipari and the Razorbacks feature one of the best freshman in the nation in 6-foot-2 Darius Acuff Jr. The Arkansas freshman was considered the No. 1 point guard in the Class of 2025 by 247 Sports and has lived up to the billing thus far, sitting third in the conference in scoring with 21.2 points per game and first in the league in assists with 6.3 per game.

"He's obviously talented, we're going to have to do a great job on him," Nate Oats said. "He's been able to get going here. He makes tough shots, he passes the ball well, he guards pretty well, too. I think Cal's done a really good job of getting him playing at a really high level."

Acuff's averaging 23.8 points and 6.4 assists in SEC action for the Razorbacks, but the Crimson Tide has a star guard of its own in Labaron Philon. Philon's been a steady force for the Alabama offensively, averaging 21.3 points with 4.9 assists per game as a sophomore, but Oats wants to see more from his second year guard in big matchups.

"We need him to be elite on the defensive end, which he's shown he's capable of, a lot more last year than this year," Oats said. "So we need to really be great defensively, and then we need him to take care of the ball. Some of these big guard matchups he's had he has not done a very good job taking care of the ball. If you go look at our losses, he's got too many early turnovers, and he hasn't been what we need him to be on defense in all these matchups either. He doesn't need to outscore Acuff. If that happens, that happens. He needs to lead his team to a win. That's taking care of the ball, making sure his team gets great shots, making sure the team plays great defense, which includes him playing great individual defense. That's what we need out of him."

Philon's been outscored by lead guards from Purdue, Arizona, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Florida head to head, with the Crimson Tide winning just one of the five matchups. The sophomore committed 19 turnovers across the five games.

The Mobile point guard has at times been excellent for Alabama this season as his scoring output is second in the league and he's greatly enhanced his 3-point shooting, but he'll have to raise his game to another level by protecting the basketball better and playing better defense to lead the Crimson Tide to victory over the most talented teams in the nation.