Show Me My Opponent, 2023-24: Arkansas
Hog-gen dazs
Feels weird to designate a road game at Murphy’s Law Arena as a get-right opportunity but that’s 2024 for you. Arkansas entered the year as a consensus top 15 team by pretty much everywhere I know of. They’ve cratered under the weight of a lot of whiffs in the transfer class, poor performances from veterans, off-court distractions that I won’t link, and off-court distractions that I will link.
As such, this is the least-frightening road game at Bud Walton Arena for Tennessee that I think I can ever recall. TeamRankings’ database reports to me that this is not only the first time Tennessee will have been favored at Arkansas since 2011 (don’t look up how that game went), it will be easily their largest spread they’ve ever encountered at Bud Walton. The previous high is -4.5. An average of KenPom and Torvik has this as UT -10.5 and that’s without factoring in the Razorbacks’ third-best player likely being out.
A good rule of thumb to see how a team’s season is going/has gone is however many starting lineups they’ve cycled through. For better or for worse, Tennessee sits at two (2) different starting lineups this year. Arkansas is at 13 through 23 games and it may well be 14 after this one. Is this where I remind you that this is Eric Musselman’s first Year 5 at any job in his entire career?
BEHIND THE WALL ($): If you’re a Louisville fan, perhaps refer to last year’s Arkansas preview(s) to feel better