John Calipari brought a retooled Arkansas team built by the transfer portal and a strong recruiting class to Knoxville for its SEC opener against top-ranked Tennessee on Saturday afternoon. They weren’t ready for a Volunteer team that overwhelmed them with physicality in a 76-52 victory.
“They kind of manhandled us,” Calipari said following the game. ” I can’t remember the last time I had a team get beat by 30 rebounds (22). We got to do some soul searching, because this league, what they play like everybody plays like.”
Tennessee did the bulk of its damage on the boards where they out-rebounded the Razorbacks 51-29 including a 24-9 advantage on the offensive end.
The Vols didn’t shoot the ball overly well, making just 39% of their shots from the field compared to Arkansas’ 38% shooting from the field. But behind the rebounding advantage, Tennessee took 16 more shots than the Razorbacks and made seven more shots.
“They had more offensive rebounds than we had rebounds (29-25 Arkansas advantage). I want you to hear what I just said,” Calipari said. “If you’re in there and you can’t rebound, you can’t be in. Don’t be mad at me. Don’t be mad at an assistant coach. Just rebound, or someone else has to play, and that means you’re going to have to go body to body.”
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Igor Milicic was particularly affective on the glass, grabbing 18 rebounds in 36 minutes. At halftime, Milicic had three less rebounds than Arkansas’ entire team combined and he finished the game with more offensive rebounds (six) than the Razorbacks’ team leading rebounder (five).
Barnes’ program has prided itself on defense and physicality during his tenure. That identity is what makes its floor so high and has, in part, made them elite at home in recent years.
“You play this team, you better be coming in ready to fight,” Calipari said. “And I don’t mean fist fight, I mean battle.”
“Us losing a rebounding battle, losing a 50-50 ball— it irks us,” Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler said. “Coming back to the bench, we might lose one 50-50 ball and guys are getting on each other and if we lose a segment in rebounding coach is getting on us or we may be getting on each other. We just take a lot of pride on the little things and that translates to show how tough we really are.”
Tennessee’s improved offense raises its ceiling and that has been evident throughout the season. Calipari noted that in his postgame press conference as well.
“Hats off to Tennessee,” Calipari said. “They’re the number one team for a reason and they did it to us.”
