KNOXVILLE - Admiral Schofield thought for a moment when asked how he would prepare a scouting report to guard his Tennessee basketball team.
"I would try to frustrate me and Grant (Williams), get us in foul trouble, get us out early so you have to force other guys to play," he said Tuesday. "But you do that and we just get faster, more athletic.
"It would be hard for me to scout us, but I know a lot of teams would try to frustrate me, get me and Grant in foul trouble and think that's going to do the job."
Then he quickly added with a laugh, "That's not it."
A former college coach who helped recently with a scouting report against Tennessee told the Times Free Press, "You've got to get (Kyle) Alexander in foul trouble.
"Then hope they miss."
Not exactly a foolproof game plan.
Arkansas attempted to do something similar Tuesday, pressuring the Volunteers and trying to disrupt the flow of the offense, but Tennessee responded by making 11 of 18 3-pointers in a 106-87 Southeastern Conference win.
Figuring out ways to guard the third-ranked Vols (15-1, 4-0) has been an issue for opponents this season, especially after the return of Lamonte Turner from injury. Turner returned on Jan. 5 for the start of SEC play against Georgia.
Since then, an already prolific attack has only gotten stronger. The Vols lead the league in scoring offense in SEC games at 91.8 points per game. They lead in field-goal accuracy, making 53 percent of their shots, while also pacing the league in assists at 17.8 per contest.
The headaches lie in the matchups. Teams that want to go big have to deal with 6-foot-6, 241-pound guard Schofield and the 6-7, 236-pound Williams and 6-11, 215-pound Alexander inside - with 6-9, 197-pound sophomore John Fulkerson providing another taller body off the bench. Teams that want to go small could easily see guards Turner, Jordan Bone and Jordan Bowden in at the same time, with Schofield sliding down to play more of a power forward position.
Bone has been a solid distributor at point guard, ranking fourth in the SEC at 5.8 assists per game. Williams and Schofield rank 1-2 in the league in scoring for the season, yet in conference games Bowden paces the Vols at 19 points per game, third in the SEC. He has averaged 25.5 minutes per game off the bench in SEC play.
Alexander has patrolled the interior, with Williams primarily playing inside but stepping out some. Schofield is shooting 57 percent from the field and 56 percent from 3-point range in league games. Once Bowden and Turner come off the bench, the Vols are able to play at an even faster pace.
"It is tough. I tell my teammates all the time I wouldn't want to play against us," Turner said. "You stop one guy and another guy gets going. I think it is just a testament to how hard we work as a team, because Coach (Rick) Barnes is pushing us in all ways and he pushes everyone the same way. Everybody has the same responsibility, and everybody is held to the same standard."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.