John Calipari strode to the table in the press conference room inside Food City Center Saturday.
In front of a pool of reporters, who hadn’t yet begun to roll their cameras or recorders, the first-year Arkansas head coach offered an unprompted answer.
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“I’ve had better days,” he said.
For Calipari, there wasn’t much else to say about what No. 1 Tennessee had just done to his Razorbacks team in both teams’ SEC opener.
He has coached more than 15 seasons in the league—first at Kentucky and now at Arkansas and there have been few games he has been a part of where an opponent dominated quite like the Vols did on Saturday.
“They’re the No. 1 team in the country for a reason,” Calipari said. “And my disappointment wasn’t in coming to Tennessee and losing a game. It was they kind of manhandled us.”
If Tennessee (14-0) continues to stack those kinds of performances on one another, it will remain No. 1 for awhile.
The Vols' historic, unbeaten start--the first in since the 1922-23 team won its first 14 games--has been helped greatly by its two transfer additions in guard Chaz Lanier and forward Igor Milicic Jr.
If there were any concerns that the two players--who played previously at North Florida and Charlotte, respectively--could handle the grind of a playing in what has been the best league in college basketball, they quelled them.
Against Arkansas (11-3), they looked like seasoned SEC veterans.
It was the 6-foot-10 Milicic that headlined a dominating performance for Tennessee on the glass. The Vols out-rebounded the Razorbacks, 51-29, including 24 offensive boards.
Milicic grabed 18 of his own, the most by a Tennessee player in more than a decade and the most by an SEC player against a conference team in at least 20 years.
"He was spectacular," Vols head coach Rick Barnes said. "...I was impressed with what he did. 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."
The outing came less than a week after Tennessee was out-rebounded against Norfolk State, prompting assistant coach Gregg Polinsky to show the team highlights of a running back getting yards after contact.
"That’s what offensive rebounding is," Barnes said. "You’re going to get hit. Can you go get some yardage afterwards and get yourself in position? Either get it, open up the gap for somebody else to get it, tip it back. But (Milicic's) effort, he’s been pretty consistent with that all year."
"I just need to jump and get it," Milicic said. "It's not that hard, honestly."
Milicic's efforts--no matter how he tried to downplay them--led to several extra possessions for Tennessee that Lanier took advantage of.
The Vols' leading scorer through the first 13 games, recorded a season-high 29 points on 10-of-20 shooting from the field and five 3-pointers.
He provided Tennessee with a spark early to pull away from what was a back-and-forth game in the first five minutes, then gave his team another jolt in the second half off of his lethal quick release that Arkansas, like most teams that the Vols have played, never found an answer to slow down.
"I think it’s a compliment to (Lanier's) teammates," Barnes said. "And I think he would say the same thing. In the fact that they’re finding him, looking for each other, knowing where to look for each other...I’ve said it from day one, he’s an incredible human being that wants to be coached. And you guys are here, I’m on him and going to stay on him. But he shows nothing but great respect, great humility.
"And the fact that when you’re like that, I think your teammates, they want to see you do well and there’s not one selfish thing about him."
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