From a friendly evening of orange to a hostile afternoon of red.
After continuing their comforts inside Thompson-Boling Arena with Tuesday night’s 76-63 thumping of No. 4 Kentucky, the No. 16 Tennessee Volunteers will be hurting for support Saturday afternoon when they visit No. 23 Arkansas. The Vols have come away empty in each of their past six trips to Bud Walton Arena, last prevailing in February 2009, when Bruce Pearl was in his fourth of six seasons as Tennessee’s coach.
Arkansas employed a “White Out” in Bud Walton for its 80-76 overtime topping of then-No. 1 Auburn on Feb. 8 and will stage a “Red Out” to welcome the Vols.
“We know that playing at Arkansas is as difficult as anywhere in the country,” Vols associate head coach Michael Schwartz said Friday afternoon on a Zoom call. “We love our fan base, and Thompson-Boling Arena the other night was electric, but we also know what it’s like to play at Arkansas. We’ve been there a few times, and it’s been rabid when we’re in there.
“We have seen the Auburn game, and Arkansas is one of the top teams in the SEC. Our guys know what that atmosphere is going to be like, and now we’ve got to go in and keep that crowd as quiet as possible.”
The 4 p.m. showdown on ESPN will mark the first Arkansas-Tennessee game in which both teams are ranked.
Tennessee’s trouncing of the Wildcats marked its 15th straight win in Knoxville dating to last season, but true road games have not gone so smoothly for the Vols, who are 19-6 overall and 10-3 in Southeastern Conference play. They opened their league schedule at Alabama and also made early trips to LSU and Kentucky, with each of those journeys resulting in defeat.
The Vols have won their past three SEC road games, against Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Mississippi State, but their last truly hostile setting was for the 52-51 loss at Texas in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
“We enjoy our home court and our fans, and we know what the environment is going to be like over there in Arkansas,” Vols sixth-year senior forward John Fulkerson said. “We’ve got to be prepared, and we’ve got to stay together.”
Arkansas advanced further than any SEC team in last year’s NCAA tournament, reaching the Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Baylor. Eric Musselman’s Razorbacks this season are 20-6 overall and 9-4 within the SEC after starting league play with three straight setbacks.
The Hogs possess four players who average double figures in points: 6-foot-2 senior guard JD Notae (18.8 per game), 6-6 senior guard Stanley Umude (11.4), 6-6 senior guard Au’Diese Toney (10.3) and 6-10 sophomore forward Jaylin Williams (10.2). Williams also averages 9.3 rebounds a game to rank second in the conference behind Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe.
“They’ve got big guards, and when they got off to a little bit of a slow start, they made a couple of adjustments,” Schwartz said. “One of the biggest things they did was go to a big guard lineup, with Notae, Umude and Toney being three of those guys. They are dynamic scorers who are averaging double figures, and then you throw Jaylin Williams in that.
“They’re also the leading defensive team in SEC play, so it will not only be a challenge to guard them but to be able to score and be efficient on offense, too.”
Schwartz is expecting a “high-level basketball game” and insists the page has been turned from Tuesday night. Tennessee improved to 9-7 against Kentucky in the Rick Barnes era, matching the nine wins the Vols compiled against 33 losses to the Wildcats in the 20 years from 1995-2015.
“The page was turned in the locker room right after the game, to be honest with you,” Schwartz said. “We started talking about the challenge and what faces us heading into Bud Walton on Saturday. I don’t think there is any hangover whatsoever in terms of thinking about the Kentucky game and thinking about what a big win it was.
“It was a big win, just like they all are right now. In late February, every conference game is as big as they get.”
Stealing the show
Tennessee guards Kennedy Chandler, Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi rank among the SEC’s top 10 in steals per game.
When it comes to league contests only, Zeigler’s 2.54 and Chandler’s 2.50 steals per game are 1-2 within the conference.
“We had one game when Kennedy and Zakai had 10 steals between them,” Schwartz said. “I think we forced 14 turnovers the other night, and nine of them were on steals. We’re not satisfied with the field-goal defense we have right now in SEC play, because teams are shooting above 40%, and that isn’t meeting our goal, but we also could not have predicted that we would be as efficient with our steal percentage.
“We’ve forced 16 turnovers a game in SEC play and 17 a game on the season, and that’s an area that’s probably the highest it’s been in the last four or five years. Steals have been a really big part of it, and it’s kind of become a little bit of our identity. Zakai and Kennedy in particular have had some key late-game steals.”
Odds and ends
Tennessee has won four of the past five overall meetings with Arkansas to take a 23-21 series lead. … The Vols rank eighth nationally in steals per game (9.8) and in turnover margin (plus-4.8). … Vescovi’s 45.8% accuracy clip from 3-point range in SEC games leads the conference.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.