Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

2/14/2012 at 3:06pm

Who saw this coming? Tennessee figured to be "O-fer" on the Southeastern Conference road, and playing host to equally 0-for-the-road Arkansas in a TV game on Wednesday night in Knoxville. Instead, Tennessee pulled a stunner by dropping Florida 75-70 in Gainesville on Saturday night and sweeping the season series from the Gators.

Maybe there's a lesson for the Razorbacks as they go into Thompson-Boling Arena, where wins have been rare even for the Hogs' better teams. In fact, Arkansas' national championship team in 1994 needed a late jump shot by Scotty Thurman to beat a weak Vols team in Knoxville.

Arkansas plays the Vols at 7 p.m. Wednesday on the SEC Network.

Tennessee was one of three SEC teams to manage a 2-0 week last week, along with league leader Kentucky and surprising Georgia, which wiped out Arkansas at midweek at home by 22 points, then stunned Mississippi State in Starkville in overtime.

(All that sudden success by the Bulldogs, and they are still shooting 39.5 percent on all field goals).

Tennessee, with three wins in a row, is now thinking a late-season surge. The NCAA Tournament selection committee could be looking favorably on the Vols with a mid-season addition of starting post Jarnell Stokes, could grant Tennessee an NCAA tourney spot. The Vols have a 13-12 record that needs improving, but a continued run over the remaining six SEC games, and some success in the SEC Tournament in New Orleans, should improve the current 110 RPI ranking and make the committee take notice.

First-year Vols Coach Cuonzo Martin, who came to Knoxville from a successful run with Missouri State, is trying to keep his young team focused on each game and not get too carried away by last week's successes.

"I think for me as a coach, our approach is the same," Martin said Monday. "I mean, I don't walk into practice with a tuxedo on or anything like that. Our approach is still the same: the hard hat and let's get to work. It's a mindset you come with every day."

Stokes' presence allows the Vols to battle teams inside — he had an immediate impact upon arrival in January in Tennessee's 60-57 upset of defending national champion UConn. But Stokes missed a midweek game last week and couldn't go more than 11 minutes at Florida because of a sprained wrist, and yet the Vols outplayed Florida's Patric Young and the Gators' other interior athletes, while the perimeter players matched up evenly with the Gators' strength — their outside shooters. Tennessee shot 48 percent at Florida.

Gone from last year's Vols, Bruce Pearl's last run in Knoxville, are such stars as Scotty Hobson and Tobias Harris.

Trae Golden, Skylar McBee, Jeronne Maymon, Kenny Hall and Jordan McRae are names Arkansas fans will need to familiarize themselves with leading into Wednesday's game. They should also expect far less of the breakneck pace and pressing Pearl preferred for the sound defensive approach that Martin learned playing for Gene Keady at Purdue.

As for the 6-foot-8, 250-pound Stokes, who picked Tennessee over Arkansas, Memphis and others in December, Cuonzo Martin told the Chattanooga Times-Free Press: "He's fine. If it's not improving, he'll make it improve because he wants to be on the floor. He's ready to go. He's hungry." Stokes said the injured wrist "shouldn't be a problem anymore."

Arkansas, which can win out at home over the next six games and reach 20 wins in the regular season, needs a win, any win, on the road. It's reached a point where it may be working mentally against the young Hogs. Last Wednesday's trip into Athens looked like Arkansas' best shot at a road win, and instead they lost by 22 in making struggling Georgia look suddenly like Kentucky.

ArkansasSports360.com Power Poll (for week beginning Feb. 6)

1. Kentucky (25-1, 11-0). Tearing up the league with efficient offense, dominant interior defense.
2. Florida (19-6, 7-3). Humbled at UK, then at home by Vols.
3. Mississippi State (19-6, 6-4). Too talented to play this weird, losing at home.
4. Vanderbilt (17-8, 6-4). Gave UK its best shot and lost.
5. Ole Miss (15-9, 5-5). Kennedy doing a terrific coaching job keeping Rebels in it.
6. Tennessee (13-12, 5-5). Next to Kentucky, had the best week in the league last week.
7. Arkansas (17-8, 5-5). Hold serve at home, win 20 games. Amazing.
8. Georgia (12-12, 3-7). A sudden surge by the previously woeful Bulldogs.
9. LSU (14-10, 4-6). Needs to get on a run.
10. Alabama (16-8, 5-5). Can the skipper save a sinking ship?
11. Auburn (13-12, 3-8). Terrible at home against bedraggled Tide.
12. South Carolina (9-15, 1-9). Outscored Arkansas 16-0 over one 2nd-half stretch, still lost by 11.

THIS WEEK
(All times Central)
Tuesday, Feb. 14
Florida at Alabama, 6 p.m., ESPN
Mississippi State at LSU, 8 p.m., ESPNU

Wednesday, Feb. 15
Georgia at South Carolina, 6 p.m., CSS
Arkansas at Tennessee, 7 p.m., SEC Network

Thursday, Feb. 16
Vanderbilt at Ole Miss 8 p.m., ESPN2

Saturday, Feb. 18
Tennessee at Alabama, 12:30 p.m., SEC Network
LSU at South Carolina, 12:30 p.m., SEC Network
Ole Miss at Kentucky, 3 p.m., SEC Network
Florida at Arkansas, 5 p.m., ESPN2
Mississippi State at Auburn, 7 p.m., FSN

SHORT SHOTS
Four SEC players were among the 20 players listed Feb. 6 on the United States Basketball Writers Association  2012 Oscar Robertson Trophy Midseason Watch List. Kentucky’s Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins and Mississippi State’s Arnett Moultrie are contenders for the Oscar Robertson Trophy, to be presented to the national player of the year ... Kentucky is leading the nation in winning percentage (96.2), scoring margin (19.9), blocked shots per game (9.4) and by holding their opponents to just 35.8 percent shooting. Florida tops the NCAA statistics with 10.3 3-pointers per game ... Individually, Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins leads the NCAA with 3.89 3-pointers per game and Kentucky’s Anthony Davis is the nation’s to shot blocker with 4.9 per contest ... SEC teams have won 139 of their 170 (.8818) of their home games this season ... Kentucky’s 49-game home winning streak is the longest active streak in the nation. The streak includes the 2009 NIT game at Memorial Coliseum, coached by Billy Gillispie, and the last 47 games at Rupp Arena, coached by Gillispie's successor at UK, John Calipari.

TOP PLAYERS
The league honored these players for last week’s efforts:

• Arkansas will certainly agree with the SEC's Player of the Week choice. Georgia's Gerald Robinson, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior guard from Nashville, Tenn., was named POTW after averaging 20 points, 4.5 rebounds and three assists in wins over Arkansas and at 20th-ranked Mississippi State. Robinson scored a career-high 27 points in Georgia’s win over Arkansas, pumping in 17 points and adding four assists in the first half alone. His previous high had been 22 points. Then, Robinson almost singlehandedly beat Mississippi State on Saturday night in Starkville, scoring 10 of his  13 points in the final 28 seconds of regulation and in the overtime period. His two foul shots with 28 secondds left in overtime all but sealed the Bulldogs' huge upset.

• Marquis Teague, a 6-foot-2, 189-pound freshman guard from Indianapolis, Ind., was named Freshman of the Week after averaging 12.5 points, 9.5 assists and 3.5 rebounds in Kentucky's  wins over 8th-ranked Florida and at Vanderbilt. Teague tallied his first-career double-double in the win against Florida scoring 12 points and dishing out a game-high 10 assists. He followed that performance with a 13-point, eight assist, one turnover game on the road at Vanderbilt. Over the last eight games, Teague has 46 assists against 17 turnovers.

E-mail: jharris@abpg.com, and follow Jim on Twitter @jimharris360.

Tagged: Southeastern Conference, Southeastern Conference Tournament, Tennessee Volunteers, Cuonzo Martin, Jarnell Stokes, Mike Anderson