Tennessee basketball opened SEC play on Saturday with a dominant win against Arkansas. The new-look Razorbacks led by John Calipari were no match for Tennessee's physical defense and explosive offense, resulting in a 76-52 win for the Volunteers.
A huge part of Tennessee's win comes from the Vols' veteran transfer players, Igor Milicic and Chaz Lanier. Each player put together a dominant performance that would likely have single-handedly won the game despite the other's performance.
Tennessee outrebounded Arkansas 51 to 29, and the Vols were led by Milicic, who grabbed 18 boards and paired that with 13 points. Milicic was relentless, and Rick Barnes gave credit where credit was due in his postgame press conference.
"Igor was spectacular," Barnes said postgame. "We knew that he was a really good defensive rebounder coming here. But the fact that he's done so much on the offensive boards, he did a lot today. He did a lot of good things out there."
Lanier continued his dominant scoring stretch. He scored 29 points on the way to his tenth straight game with at least 17 points as he continues to take over virtually every game the Vols have played this season.
Barnes loves to see Lanier shoot the ball, and all of VolNation would agree. Lanier gets the ball out lightning fast, making it nearly impossible to guard, and it's even harder to lock him down when he gets hot.
"That's one of the quickest I've been around, I'll be honest with you. I mean, he does. I mean, and it's deep," Barnes said. "It's quick. It is. He gets rid of it, and it is hard to guard."
This could be just the beginning for the two veteran first-year Vols. Barnes also mentioned his high expectations for Milicic and Lanier, and so far, they are living up to those expectations and rising to the next level in every game.
"We have such a high expectation for both of those guys because they're older, they've been around, and they're really, really, really terrific basketball players, but you're always pushing to get more and more," Barnes continued.
Tennessee will now move on to its first conference road matchup, a trip to No. 6 Florida. The Gators lost their SEC opener 106-100 to No. 10 Kentucky and will look to take down the best team in the country on Tuesday night.