LINEUP NOTES

Arkansas:

• Looks like it’ll be Jones, Sills, Whitt, Bailey, Chaney to start, but that’s not the lineup they use most.
• That would be Harris, Sills, Whitt, Jones, Bailey. Harris is the Arkansas sixth man and has played 104 of a possible 125 minutes in their last three games, which is an insane number of minutes for a bench player. They don’t go deeper than six players unless they’re in extreme foul trouble, and even then, Musselman has been lenient at times on letting guys play through it out of necessity.

Tennessee:

• If Josiah-Jordan James plays: Vescovi, Bowden, JJJ, Pons, Fulkerson.
• If Josiah-Jordan James can’t play: Vescovi, Bowden, Pons, Fulkerson, Plavsic.
• Again, I am at the point where I would prefer Jalen Johnson starting to Plavsic, but whatever.
• I can genuinely never tell with Rick Barnes because he clearly gets a kick out of doing irregular things, but it appears Olivier Nkamhoua is finally getting de-emphasized in the rotation. Across the last three games, he’s played just 12 minutes, and I don’t think he touched the court until the second half against Kentucky. Drew Pember + Plavsic have usurped his minutes.

KEY MATCHUPS

Basically the Entire Team vs. Mason Jones. Mason Jones is so talented that he can play 1-through-5 in the Arkansas system and it doesn’t seem all that weird. Just about everyone on Tennessee’s roster is going to get a shot at guarding him, though I would trust Yves Pons with it most. In the two non-Joe games, Jones has gone for 38 shot attempts and 30 free throw attempts, or the equivalent of about 52 field goal attempts. He will usurp well over a third of the Arkansas possessions in this one; if you limit him at all, you win, full stop.

Uh…Jalen Johnson vs. Jimmy Whitt? Yeah, weird, but whatever. Johnson’s getting legitimate sixth man/low-end starter minutes, and Whitt is now the #2 option in the Arkansas offense. Whitt will not challenge Johnson at all on the perimeter, but he’ll be hard to deal with in the paint. Can Johnson hold up?

PREDICTION

Tennessee 65, Arkansas 64. I’ve said dumber.