Arkansas got a brutal dose of reality Saturday afternoon at Tennessee.
Sure, not every game will be on the road against the No. 1 team in the country, but the Razorbacks’ 76-52 blowout loss to the Volunteers at Thompson-Boling Arena was a harsh reminder that SEC play has arrived.
It was competitive early before Arkansas went more than seven minutes without a field goal and found itself in the same position it was in its four non-conference games against high-major opponents: trailing by double digits in the first half.
The Razorbacks at least made things interesting in the first two — neutral-site losses to current top-25 teams Baylor and Illinois — and then rallied for a wins over a bad Miami (Fla.) team on the road and Michigan at Madison Square Garden.
As they experienced against the Volunteers, such comebacks will be tough to come by in what some are calling the best conference in college basketball history, with 10 teams in the latest AP Top 25 and 13 currently projected to make the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve got to do some soul searching, because this league…what they play like, everybody plays like,” Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari said. “We know we’re not as good as the No. 1 team in the country. In this league, every game you’re going to play is going to be a hard game, every one.”
Tennessee never let its foot off the gas and led by double digits for the final 25 minutes of the game. The Razorbacks showed some fight after halftime, but had dug themselves too big of a hole and the Volunteers eventually pulled away down the stretch.
The 24-point margin made it Calipari’s fourth-worst loss since his brief stint in the NBA, a stretch that included nine seasons at Memphis and 15 at Kentucky.
With another 10 Quadrant 1 games on the docket, not to mention seven Q2s, Arkansas could suffer more losses like that if it has similarly sloppy first halves moving forward.
Here are a few other key takeaways from the Arkansas vs Tennessee matchup…
Contrasting the Transfers
Tasked with building a roster from scratch, John Calipari brought three players with him to Arkansas from Kentucky, retained Trevon Brazile and did his usual thing by signing three high-profile recruits.
What got people talking about the Razorbacks as a legitimate top-25 team, though, was his work in the portal. He landed not one, but two top-10 transfers.
Injuries have certainly played a role, but it’s safe to say that Johnell Davis and Jonas Aidoo have fallen well short of their expected output so far this year — especially when their production Saturday is compared to a transfer tandem for Tennessee.
Coming out of FAU, Davis was ranked as the No. 1 player in the portal by On3 and received an NIL deal “north of $1 million,” according to Jeff Goodman.
He returned to action after missing the Razorbacks’ last two non-conference games with a wrist injury, but was virtually a no-show against Tennessee. Not only did he fail to score, missing all four of his shots, but Davis failed to record a statistic until grabbing a rebound after 16 minutes on the floor. He finished with 2 rebounds and 1 turnover in 25 minutes.
That is a stark contrast to the Volunteers’ top transfer. Chaz Lanier, who was ranked as the No. 8 transfer in the cycle out of North Florida, charred Arkansas to the tune of 29 points on 10 of 20 shooting, including 5 of 9 from beyond the arc.
It was a season-high, but far from the first time he’s helped Tennessee in the scoring column. Lanier scored in double figures in all but one of the Vols’ 13 non-conference games, eclipsing 20 points six times — including against Virginia (26), Baylor (25), Syracuse (26) and Miami (22).
Prior to Saturday’s SEC opener, Lanier was averaging 19.6 points and shooting 45.9% on 8.5 three-point attempts per game. Davis, meanwhile, was averaging just 9.2 points and shooting 38.8% on 4.5 three-point attempts — numbers that are inflated by big performances against the likes of Lipscomb, Maryland-Eastern Shore and UTSA.
Perhaps his production will improve as he continues to recover from the wrist injury that’s bothered him since the offseason, but Davis hasn’t been anywhere close to as productive as Tennessee’s top-10 transfer.
Dominated on the Glass
As for the other half of Arkansas’ transfer tandem, Jonas Aidoo — the No. 9 transfer in the cycle, per On3 — also laid an egg in his return to Tennessee.
It’s unclear exactly how much he’s getting in NIL, but CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander previously reported his “NIL price was among the biggest of any big men in this year’s portal cycle.”
Whatever that number was, it was almost certainly much larger than what Igor Milicic Jr. commanded as a transfer from Charlotte. Still, the 6-foot-10 Croatian led the charge in the most lopsided aspect of the game.
While Aidoo struggled his way to 4 points and 5 rebounds — all of which came in the second half — to go along with 3 blocks and 2 steals in 29 minutes, Milicic notched a double-double with 13 points and a career-high 18 rebounds. He added 5 assists, plus 1 block and 1 steal for good measure.
As a team, Arkansas was minus-22 on the boards. The biggest reason for that margin was Tennessee owning its offensive glass, grabbing 24 offensive rebounds that led to 16 second-change points. The Volunteers finished with more offensive boards than Arkansas had defensive rebounds (20), meaning they grabbed more of their own misses than the Razorbacks.
“All I kept saying in the second half (was) let’s get it to single digits,” Calipari said. “We do something good, they get an offensive rebound. … We make it 13, they get two offensive rebounds, two threes and you look around and you’re like, ‘Guys, it has nothing to do with anything but rebounding.’”
Up Next for Arkansas Basketball
Things don’t exactly get any easier for Arkansas, as its next two games are also against top-25 teams. One good thing is that both of them are at Bud Walton Arena.
It starts Wednesday with Ole Miss, which is ranked No. 24 and coming off an SEC-opening 63-51 win over Georgia. The Rebels are now 12-2 overall.
Tipoff of that game is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT and it will be televised on ESPN2.
Other Arkansas Basketball Tidbits
- D.J. Wagner led the Razorbacks in scoring, finishing with 17 points on 6 of 12 shooting. He scored Arkansas’ first seven points of the game, including knocking down a 3, but he missed his other four shots from beyond the arc.
- As a team, Arkansas shot just 6 of 29 (20.7%) from deep. That includes a miserable 2 of 17 in the second half, when it actually missed 10 straight after halftime.
- About the only positive for the Razorbacks was their 10-1 advantage in blocks. Zvonimir Ivisic and Jonas Aidoo had three apiece and Adou Thiero had two, while Karter Knox and Trevon Brazile each had one.
- Jimmy Dykes, a former Arkansas basketball walk-on, was the color analyst on the ESPN broadcast. The Razorbacks have played many games with him on the call, but Saturday was special for him because his daughter is a cheerleader at Tennessee.
Arkansas vs Tennessee Highlights
Arkansas vs Tennessee Box Score
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