Tennessee recently won for the third time in its past five trips to Kentucky's famed Rupp Arena.
It's a different story for the Volunteers inside Bud Walton Arena.
When the No. 8 Vols play at Arkansas on Wednesday night (9 on ESPN2), they will be looking for their first victory in Fayetteville since Feb. 4, 2009, when Bruce Pearl was in his fourth of six seasons guiding Tennessee. Cuonzo Martin and Donnie Tyndall failed to defeat the Razorbacks in Bud Walton Arena, and there have been four unsuccessful trips under current coach Rick Barnes.
"They've got a great basketball tradition," Barnes said Tuesday afternoon in a news conference. "You can go back to Nolan (Richardson) and even before that. Eddie Sutton had a run there. All of the schools with great home courts have a long history of being successful.
"Arkansas is a school with a history of always having great basketball."
The Razorbacks won the 1994 national championship and also reached the NCAA tournament's Final Four in 1941, 1945, 1978, 1990 and 1995. They have been the Southeastern Conference's most successful team the past three years as well, reaching the Elite Eight in both the 2021-22 tournaments and the Sweet 16 in last year's event.
Tennessee has lost seven straight times at Arkansas, but the Vols have claimed six of the past eight series meetings, with five of the six wins coming in Knoxville and the other at the 2018 SEC tourney in St. Louis. Eric Musselman's Razorbacks already have lost four times at home this season, including a 78-72 setback against UNCG in nonconference play and an 83-51 loss to Auburn, their worst loss in the 31-year history of the 19,200-seat facility.
Arkansas has struggled to a 12-11 overall record this season that includes a 3-7 mark in conference contests, but Barnes is hardly expecting an easy path for the Vols (17-6, 7-3) in ending the program's futility in Fayetteville.
"They beat Purdue (in a charity exhibition), and they beat Duke," Barnes said. "They beat Texas A&M, and if you go back and look at what Eric does, his teams get better. They're going to fight. That's what they do.
"We know that they have a great arena and a great home crowd, and we expect it to be as hard of a game as we've had all year."
Overconfidence should not be an issue for the Vols following last Saturday night's 85-69 loss at Texas A&M, the most lopsided defeat of their season. Barnes was asked what was learned from that experience.
"I thought we lost our poise," he said. "When we got down, we felt like we had to get it all back at once. They made some threes early, and we got away from our defensive game plan. We got anxious.
"We had effort, but it wasn't smart effort."
The Vols head to Fayetteville having yet to lose consecutive conference contests this season. They also head there having been outrebounded by a combined 83-61 against LSU and the Aggies.
"We've got to get our toughness back, and every guy knows that," Vols junior guard Jordan Gainey said. "We've been working in practice on just being able to pursue the basketball. They're a really good rebounding team. It's going to be a very similar game to Texas A&M.
"It's going to be very physical."
Odds and ends
Tennessee junior point guard Zakai Zeigler has racked up 58 points, 28 assists and 12 steals in his last three games. ... The Vols hold a 25-22 series edge against the Razorbacks, but have just four wins in 16 trips to Fayetteville. ... Tennessee fifth-year senior guard Santiago Vescovi needs seven points to reach 1,500 for his career. ... Vols fifth-year guard and Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht is averaging 26.4 points per game in SEC play.
Combine invites
Three former Tennessee football players — quarterback Joe Milton III, running back Jaylen Wright and cornerback Kamal Hadden — were among the 321 draft hopefuls invited Tuesday to the NFL combine. The combine will take place in Indianapolis from Feb. 26 to March 4.
Georgia led the SEC with 11 player invitations, including former North Murray High School standout receiver Ladd McConkey, while Michigan topped all teams nationally with a staggering 18.
The Vols had seven combine invites last year — quarterback Hendon Hooker, receivers Jalin Hyatt and Cedric Tillman, tackle Darnell Wright, edge rusher Byron Young, linebacker Jeremy Banks and punter Paxton Brooks.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.