KNOXVILLE — Tennessee had a highly successful transition from nonconference play to the Southeastern Conference portion of its basketball schedule, with the top-ranked Volunteers routing No. 23 Arkansas 76-52 Saturday afternoon before a sellout crowd of 21,678 inside the Food City Center.
The Vols improved to 14-0 for only the second time in program history, matching the 1922-23 team, while Arkansas fell to 11-3 in coach John Calipari’s inaugural season with the Razorbacks. There was nothing close about this one, as Tennessee led by as many as 27 and outrebounded Arkansas 51-29.
“I’ve had better days,” Calipari said as he sat down to do his postgame news conference. “They’re the No. 1 team in the country for a reason. My disappointment wasn’t in coming to Tennessee and losing the game. It was that they kind of manhandled us. I can’t remember the last time I had a team get beat by that many rebounds.
“We’ve got to do some soul-searching. How did we only get beat by 25? It could have been 50, but hats off to Tennessee. They’re No. 1 for a reason, and they did it to us.”
Tennessee senior guard and North Florida transfer Chaz Lanier made the most of his first game involving SEC teams, scoring 29 points and shooting 5-of-9 from 3-point range. The same also could be said for Vols senior forward and Charlotte transfer Igor Milicic Jr., who racked up 13 points and an eye-popping 18 rebounds.