UT presses issue against Arkansas in second half

The Razorbacks didn't know what was about to hit them.

Tennessee turned up its full-court press in the second half and walked out of Bud Walton Arena with an 83-72 victory.

The Vols forced 17 second-half turnovers to get to 24 for the game and those 24 produced 38 points.

"We looked like the old Tennessee from back in November and December,'' said UT guard Chris Lofton.

Or from back on Wednesday.

It's been a 50-turnover week for the Vols, who forced 26 in a 69-66 victory in overtime over Alabama.

No team in America is harder to get the ball inbounds against than Tennessee.

Arkansas gave up 11 turnovers on inbounds situations, two more than Alabama had.

"We handled their pressure well in the first half,'' said Arkansas forward Darian Townes (8 turnovers), "but in the second half they were a completely different team.''

UT coach Bruce Pearl didn't play all his cards in the first half, after which Arkansas led 36-33.

"They were expecting press and we didn't use it,'' Pearl said. "They go in at halftime and forget about it, then boom, we put it on 'em the second half.

"It's almost like sharks in the water. When you get one little bite all of a sudden the kids start seeing blood in the water and it's like a feeding frenzy.''

Nobody went hungry. All nine Vols who played had at least one steal.

"Give the coaches a lot of credit,'' said Dane Bradshaw, "for some of the wrinkles they put in our press.

"We knew they like to inbound it to their bigs, so we made some rotations because we knew the bigs would like to give it up quickly.''

Injury News: While Lofton felt the best he's felt since his Jan. 20 ankle sprain, point guard Ramar Smith was fighting through a sore knee.

Smith has experienced some patellar tendinitis and then banged his knee against an Alabama player on Wednesday.

"A lot of kids would not have played today,'' said Pearl.

Smith played 26 minutes, scored nine points, had five assists and only one turnover.

"It's sore,'' Smith said, "but you've got to fight through it. Everybody's injured right now.''

Big Three: Bradshaw's only basket of the game was a 3-pointer with 8:55 left in the first half.

It was his first trey since the Florida game (Feb. 2).

"At the end of the game it's still the same percentage (1-of-5 overall from the field), but I was happy to get one,'' he said.

"To be honest I was just happy to get back to making some plays (assists) to get Jordan (Howell) a three and Chris a three. Those are the kinds of plays I thrive on and I didn't feel I'd been giving us those special plays the past couple of games.''

Notebook: Pearl has 20 wins for the 14th time in his 15 seasons as a head coach. Pearl has now beaten every SEC team in his two seasons at UT. ... Wayne Chism was 5-of-7 shooting the second half after a 1-of-6 first half. Arkansas 7-footer Steven Hill clearly bothered the Vols in the paint, adding two blocks to his SEC-leading total. ... UT leads the series 12-11 against the Razorbacks. ... That's two games in a row in which the only technical foul went against the other team.