Arkansas basketball head coach John Calipari sat down in the postgame press conference and iterated that he’s had better days at the helm.
Tennessee ran away with a 76-52 win over Calipari’s No. 23 ranked Razorbacks, in part to a proclaimed manhandling on the court.
The Vols (14-0, 1-0 SEC) posted 16 more shots on Saturday afternoon with a healthy plus-22 advantage on the glass. It was domination for Tennessee in a sold-out home game at Food City Center.
“We need to play better, but I haven’t lost any faith in this group,” Calipari said. “You think you go on the road and you’re going to play the No. 1 team, you just want to play better. You want them to show what they are. What we showed is we kind of got manhandled.”
Arkansas (11-3, 0-1) held a lead early in the game, taking clearance with a 4-for-4 start from the field and a hot hand from D.J. Wagner. The Hogs grew to 12-9 before the game went south for the visiting team. Igor Milicic Jr. drilled a 3-pointer to tie the game up, then Chaz Lanier went on a 7-0 run by himself to break it open in the early stages of the game.
It was Lanier’s seventh SEC game of his career, but the first of which he was playing in the conference himself. Lanier played an SEC opponent six times at North Florida, scoring a high of 16 points against Georgia last season – but he contributed more than that against Arkansas.
Lanier’s shooting haunted the Razorbacks, putting forth a season-high 29 points on 10-for-20 shooting. The mid-major transfer product had even splits across the first and second half, posting 14 points across the opening stanza and 15 points in the closing.
“I think it’s a compliment to his teammates,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “And I think he would say the same thing. In the fact that they’re finding, looking for each other, knowing where to look for each other.”
Tennessee’s domination came from the aforementioned rebounding advantage. Not only did the Vols outrebound the Razorbacks by 22, but they also brought down 24 offensive rebounds — which led to opportunities galore. The Vols punched in 16 second-chance points while plotting a lead for 34 minutes of the game. Tennessee took a lead as large as 27 points in the second half, playing keep-away from any opportunities Arkansas could muster.
“Well first of all, we only had one guy go to try to offensive rebound,” Calipari said. “They had more offensive rebounds than we had rebounds. I want you to hear what I just said. All I kept saying in the second half, let’s get it to single digits. If we do something good, they get an offensive rebound. We do something good, they get an offensive rebound. We make it 13, they get two offensive rebounds, two threes. And you look around, like guys, it has nothing to do with anything but rebounding.”
While Lanier provided the scoring dagger, it was Milicic giving the Razorbacks work on the glass. The Charlotte transfer pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds — which is the most in over a decade when Jarnell Stokes had the same amount in March of 2014.
For Calipari, he has faced a Barnes-coached squad many times in the past. Barnes owns a career advantage of 14 wins to 12 over the longtime Kentucky coach. Calipari got to experience the No. 1 Vols for the first time at his new job, but it’s the same style team he’s seen in the past with a little more games under their belt.
“They’re older,” Calipari said. “They’re a year older. And so you got the one transfer, he helps them because you can stretch the floor a little bit. He’s pretty good and he hurt us rebounding. I think he had double-digit rebounds, come on. I mean, who was guarding him? Or not blocking him out? Whoever it was. Some of it was, we went to help him, he just went to the glass. But that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Furthermore, the Vols had four scorers in double digits. They forced 15 turnovers while committing 13. Offensively, they shared the basketball with 18 assists while getting in the passing lanes on defense for 10 steals. Tennessee only lacked in the block department, recording a lone blocked shot in the game — but it was a battle worth losing when the Vols did not allow Arkansas to take many shots in general.
A first-half scoring run put Barnes’ squad in the driver’s seat. Tennessee overtook the game with a scoring drought of seven minutes by Arkansas, paired with a 14-1 run over that period. It’s a credit to the DNA of the Vols’ roster — coming to fight every day.
“I think it goes to our players and I thank the good Lord that we’ve got a group of guys that are very unselfish,” Barnes said. “A group of guys that, we’re extremely transparent with and I don’t think they’re afraid to be told the truth. I think they’re locked into each other. If I could bottle the DNA of Zakai and Jahmai, even Igor — all of them. Believe me, it’s fun.”
Through the combination of different contributions, Tennessee manhandled its way to the second 14-0 start in program history. A chance to extend the winning streak to 15 games will come on Tuesday, Jan. 7, when the Vols take on Florida.
