After a disappointing start to Southeastern Conference play last Saturday in a 76-52 blowout loss to Tennessee, the Arkansas Razorbacks (11-3, 0-1 SEC) are moving on and looking ahead to their next opponent, the No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels (12-2, 1-0 SEC).
The last time out, Arkansas got embarrassed from a physicality and rebounding standpoint, and were beaten on the glass 51-29 by Tennessee, which had 24 offensive boards in the game.
"The thing we emphasize, I think we’re able to now have their attention," Coleman said. "We got enough stops. They still shot under 40%, we just didn’t obviously capitalize on it when we made them miss of securing the rebound.
"So we are doing a better job emphasizing it even more. Which we did extremely, how well of an offensive rebounding team Tennessee was. I think that now our antennas are up and we’re prepared for this challenge."
There weren't many great things to glean from Saturday's loss, and Coleman said they just have to flush it and move forward.
"You have to have amnesia in this league," Coleman said. "So, some of those things we want to forget, and some of them we want to learn from. You either win or you learn, and we want to learn from some of the experiences in that game, and some of that stuff, we want to forget and we want to chalk it up as, that’s not our team. That’s not who we are."
Moving forward, it doesn't get much easier, though not every team is as talented as Tennessee. The SEC is a gauntlet of a conference this season, and Coleman went so bold as to say it might be the best conference in college basketball history.
That level of play has made the SEC similar to the NBA, where it's impossible to look past any opponent on any given night.
"It's going to be difficult, it's going to be challenging every night," Coleman said. "We're going to have to have thick skin. We're going to have to have stick-to-it-iveness. We're going to have to have perseverance. We're going to have to take some licking and keep on ticking, so to speak, and so we're gonna dish out our fair licks."
One good thing that came out of the Tennessee loss was the experience it provided the team in terms of facing a tough, stout defense. The Volunteers are ranked No. 2 in KenPom's defensive efficiency, and that experience will help the Hogs when they go up against Ole Miss on Wednesday and moving forward in SEC play.
"Mississippi and this league, you got probably six or seven teams that are in the top 25 Ken Pom defenses in the country," Coleman said. "So, it's just the nature of the league that we're in, Ole Miss is another good defensive team. We're a good defensive team, but we're used to playing against those kinds of teams or playing against ourselves even."
The Razorbacks are back in action Wednesday night at Bud Walton Arena against No. 23 Ole Miss. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will air on ESPN2.
