John Calipari’s first observation about this Tennessee basketball team compared to last year is that the Vols are a year older.

The second was about “getting the transfer in”.

The Arkansas coach talked about Igor Milicic Jr., which became immediately clear when Calipari detailed Saturday what that unnamed transfer accomplished. He stretches the floor towards Tennessee. He helps the Vols.

He had double-digit rebounds, the key aspect of Calipari’s description that Milicic had the best rebounding performance by a player in coach Rick Barnes’ decade at Tennessee.

“Igor was spectacular,” Barnes said.

Milicic grabbed 18 rebounds with six offensive boards and 13 points as No. 1 Tennessee (14-0, 1-0 SEC) beat Arkansas (11-3, 0-1) on Saturday at Food City Center. It was the best of his career and the best of a Vol under Barnes.

Igor Milicic explains his 18 rebounds for Tennessee against Arkansas

Milicic offered a simplified explanation for his renewed success. His teammates block him and clear the way for him.

“I just have to jump out and get it,” Milicic said. “To be honest, it’s not that hard.”

Milicic made it look so easy against Arkansas. The 6-foot-3 forward grabbed nine rebounds before halftime, got his 10th rebound 33 seconds into the second half and kept going.

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The Charlotte transfer is the fourth Vol in the last 20 years to grab at least 18 rebounds in a game.

Milicic preached consistency as the key to being a good rebounder. Even if you’re tired, you have to keep crashing the boards. You must accept the contact.

Barnes praised Milicic for his anticipation, speed and good hands. He appreciated his efforts even more. He did this overall against Arkansas, as Tennessee outrebounded Arkansas 51-29 with 24 offensive rebounds.

Milicic set the tone because he makes it a priority, guard Zakai Zeigler said.

“Even if he doesn’t shoot the ball well, I can count on him to get 10 rebounds or five o-boards,” Zeigler said. “It’s really impressive that he does it day in and day out.”

Why rebounding Igor Milicic Jr. is fun.

Tennessee knew Milicic was a good rebounder coming from Charlotte, where he averaged 8.5 rebounds last season.

His offensive rebounding was impressive. The Vols play faster than Charlotte, which means more rebound opportunities. They also place more emphasis on offensive rebounds than Charlotte, which Milicic really liked.

“It’s just another chance to score,” Milicic said. “We all are. We are getting extra opportunities to score and it shows in the shooting performance we have here. It’s really fun – and of course sometimes you get a setback, right?”

Milicic is averaging 8.9 rebounds after his 18-rebound game. The only other Vol to average that many in a season over the last 20 years is Jarnell Stokes, who had 9.6 per game in 2012-13 and 10.6 per game in 2013-14.

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The Croatian has three games in a row with at least 10 rebounds. He had double-digit rebounds in four of the last five games and six of the last eight games. He had nine in one of those games.

He survived those impressive games with his best performance yet on Saturday. That got Calipari’s attention and an understatement when he said Milicic was “pretty good.”

A more accurate description is the following compliment: Milicic does what Calipari wants his players to do. He is an absolute rebounder and one of the best at it.

Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X @By Mike Wilson or Bluesky @bymikewilson.bsky.social. If you like Mike’s reporting, Consider a digital subscription This gives you access to everything.

This article originally appeared on the Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee Basketball: Inside Igor Milicic Jr.’s 18 rebounds against Arkansas