KNOXVILLE - How accustomed to not only winning but winning big have Tennessee's basketball fans become this winter?
At least 25 percent of the 19,282 folks who visited Thompson-Boling Arena on Tuesday night for the third-ranked Volunteers' 106-87 rout of Arkansas had headed for the exits by the time Admiral Schofield buried the 3-pointer that gave the winners their 98th, 99th and 100th points of the night.
To put a different spin on this, the last time the Big Orange hit the big three digits in a Southeastern Conference game was in 2008 against Florida.
"I didn't even know that shot gave us 100," Schofield said after the game. "I did wonder what all the cheering was about. I just wanted to make sure I beat the shot clock."
Yet if the fans may have understandably begun to expect such brilliance - after all, three of the Vols' four SEC wins in four tries have come by 19 or more points, and all four have come by double figures - this was not a win that particularly pleased coach Rick Barnes.
Especially not after watching the Razorbacks outscore the home team 53-51 in the second half.
"I don't expect us to be perfect, but I do expect us to try to do the right thing," Barnes said. "Oh, we gave up so many rebounds we should have had. We're a veteran team. We shouldn't be turning the ball over coming out of a timeout. We tried to play zone (defense). We did an absolutely horrible job."
Finally, recalling his first words to his team following the game, Barnes said he told them, "I'll be disappointed if you're not disappointed, because Arkansas beat us in the second half."
Yet to listen to Razorbacks coach Mike Anderson after this same game was to hear a quite different opinion of Tennessee's 15th win in 16 outings this season.
"They have a dynamite team," he said. "They're hungry, they're humble, they play for each other. I've got pieces. They've got pieces that are playing well together. They're probably the No. 1 team in the country the way they're playing right now."
How special is this team? Five players scored in double figures against the Razorbacks, and the top two scorers of that quintet - senior Lamonte Turner with 21 points and junior Jordan Bowden with 19 - came off the bench.
Yet Anderson's words were also what every coach hates to hear, especially when his players haven't heard such talk at any previous moment during their time at Tennessee.
With top-ranked Duke losing at home Monday night to Syracuse and No. 2 Michigan facing dangerous Wisconsin this weekend, it would certainly be possible for the Vols to wake up Monday morning as the No. 1 team in the country. That hasn't happened since that 2008 season, when UT went to Memphis and knocked off the then-No. 1 Tigers to become the No. 1 team itself.
What happened next - the Vols losing at Vanderbilt a few days later - is why Barnes seemed to be dismissing any possible jump in the polls even if UT takes care of its business Saturday against Alabama.
"Forget all the outside noise, where we are in the rankings," he said. "I don't care where we're voted. It's about us staying focused on the task at hand."
Tuesday night, they lost focus in that second half. They let Arkansas hit 20 of 35 field-goal tries (57.1 percent) following intermission after holding the Hogs to 12 of 32 (37.5 percent) in the first half.
"Our goal is to hold teams under 65 points for the game," said Schofield, who scored all 17 of his points after the break. "We didn't come out with the same sense of urgency (in the second half)."
True. But you can almost understand. After all, the last SEC team to venture into the Boling Alley trailed 53-24 at the break, Georgia eventually losing that one 96-50.
Less that eight minutes into Tuesday night's game, Arkansas was down 15 (20-5). By intermission the margin was 21 (55-34).
With domination such as that, you couldn't help but wonder if the officials might institute some sort of mercy rule that would allow the clock to run without stoppage over the final 20 minutes.
Instead, Arkansas displayed much pride and Tennessee displayed enough boredom and complacency to lose the second half by two points to a team whose biggest margin of defeat all season had been by six points to both Florida and LSU.
"We don't worry about the rankings," Schofield said. "We just worry about ourselves."
Playing as they did the first 20 minutes against Arkansas, it's everybody else who must worry about playing the Vols.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com