Arkansas basketball continues its 2024-25 season against No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Volunteers head coach Rick Barnes spoke to the media Friday to preview the matchup.
Tennessee is off to a red-hot start to begin the year, as it sits with a perfect 13-0 record with wins over teams such as Louisville, Virginia, Baylor, Syracuse, Miami, Illinois and others.
Under Barne's leadership, Tennessee has accumulated a 213-101 (100-61 SEC) overall record in 10 seasons. Through 13 games, the Volunteers boast the No. 87 scoring offense (80.1 PPG) and No. 2 scoring defense (56.2 PAPG) in the country.
This will mark the 49th meeting between the two teams, as Tennessee leads the series 26-22. Arkansas has lost its last three matchups against the Volunteers, with its most recent victory coming in 2022. The Razorbacks last won in Knoxville in 2017.
Here's everything Barnes had to say about John Calipari, the Razorbacks and Saturday's game:
On parallels between his first season at Tennessee and John Calipari's first season at Arkansas:
Barnes: "You know, I mean obviously it's always new when you go somewhere else because it takes you awhile — he spent many, many years in Lexington and you go somewhere, just like 17 years at Texas for me, but what happens is you get so into the job. Your life, in terms of the way you do things, that changes. Obviously you went from one great fan base to another great fan base and watching his team, he's always been a great basketball coach everywhere he's been.
"Doesn't matter where he goes. Turns things around quickly, wins games and his teams are always so fundamentally sound and you have to beat them, they're not going to beat themselves. I'm sure he's still making some adjustments in his family personally, but basketball-wise you look at what he's done, pretty much the same."
On Jonas Aidoo:
Barnes: "We appreciate what Jonas did for us while we were here, but you all know where we are in college athletics and you're going to see more of that as time goes on. When guys leave, go other places for various reasons sometimes, but Jonas, we loved him, we loved what he did, loved his growth, but he's there, we're here and it's about competition.
"Jonas has had to deal with an injury obviously, so he hasn't probably been out there as much as they'd probably like to have him. I see him trying to do some of the same things that we were trying to do with him."
On preparing for Arkansas while Johnell Davis is questionable:
Barnes: "You go in preparing for guys to play, I mean that's what you expect. Again, you never know what's going to happen but you're always preparing for it. Realizing that we've seen so many guys that you didn't think would play and they play great. We'll be prepared."
On Tennessee's focus leading up to the game:
Barnes: "I think our focus has been good all year leading up, maybe that's because of guys knowing they're going to play, maybe because of lesser bodies out there, but I thought our last two games have been great for us. I thought what Middle Tennessee (State) did was terrific, they did some things that was needed. Norfolk State, what they did, was exactly what we needed.
"I give our coaching staff credit, we scheduled those games and they were what we were looking for. Those teams gave us everything we wanted and more, which was good. But our preparation for our players, they were on point with what we needed them to try to get done, so we'll continue to do that and keep moving forward."
