Challenged ... champs

KNOXVILLE — Four games in two weeks.

College basketball teams must beat four teams in two weeks to reach the Final Four, and the second and fourth games follow roughly 48 hours after the first and third. But at least all four games are on neutral courts.

The University of Tennessee Volunteers have not had that luxury in regular-season play the last two weeks. The fourth-ranked Volunteers navigated a nightmarish four-game stretch with just one loss.

A wild, 89-86 Wednesday win at Florida gave the Vols their first outright Southeastern Conference championship in 41 seasons, and it certainly didn’t hurt their cause for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

In a dizzying 12-day stretch, the Vols (27-3, 13-2) handed then-No. 1 Memphis its only loss of the season, lost on the final possession at No. 16 Vanderbilt and came from behind to edge Kentucky and Florida.

Only the Kentucky win was a home game.

“A grind, man, a grind,” said senior guard JaJuan Smith, a former McMinn County High School standout. “This is a good tired — a ‘We’re SEC East champs, baby’ kind of tired.”

Walking to the bus outside Florida’s O’Connell Center after midnight, the Vols looked like a funny combination of terrific and terrifically tired.

Senior guard Chris Lofton joked that the Vols’ red-eye flight to Knoxville would “probably be delayed or something.” That was a reference to their road adventure at Vanderbilt, when icy roads on the Cumberland Plateau kept them in Nashville an extra night and a flat-tire on the team bus left them stranded in Cookeville for a few hours the following morning.

“I’m going to sleep good tonight,” UT sophomore Wayne Chism said minutes after the Florida game and minutes before the clock turned to Thursday. “I’m going to rest my mental mind and my physical body and then get ready for our next game.”

Added Lofton: “That’s the plan, anyway. We’re hoping there’s no plane delays, no nothing, and then we can just fly home, get to class and then just relax tomorrow.”

The plane arrived safely in Knoxville just after 2 a.m. Thursday, and the Vols were home within the hour. They attended classes Thursday before most of them relaxed. Sophomore forward Tyler Smith drove home to Pulaski “to see my son and take care of some family things. But other than that, it’s still good to get a day off.

“But it’s better to win the SEC championship.”

Added JaJuan Smith — or, as Tyler calls him, “the littlest” of UT’s three Smiths: “Our next game isn’t until Sunday, and a loss would have (caused) a few days of sickness.

“But now we’ve got a great feeling in our mouths,” JaJuan continued. “We feel good about ourselves, and we’re ready to rest and come to play on Sunday.”

SLOW STARTS, LATE HEARTS

At 2 p.m. Sunday, the Vols will host South Carolina (13-16, 5-10) in Dave Odom’s last regular-season game as the Gamecocks’ coach.

South Carolina isn’t on the NCAA bubble like Kentucky and Florida, but its motivation to win for Odom and gain momentum for the SEC tournament should be strong.

“They always play us tough at our place,” Pearl said Monday about the Gamecocks.

So South Carolina will fight. That’s the expectation, anyway. If the Gamecocks fight — and execute — like Florida did in Wednesday’s first half, the Vols could find themselves in a similarly tough spot.

Chism said the Gators’ first nine possessions in the O-Dome were “just like the way Memphis started against us.”

The Gators “were hitting however many straight — which was a lot,” Chism said. “It was just like Florida up in Knoxville, too, when they were making everything and we weren’t doing our jobs defensively.”

A reporter responded to Chism’s question of how hot Florida started from the field with an answer — “9-for-9 from the field, 4-for-4 from 3-point range,” he said.

“We knew they were going to come out hard, because they’re at home,” Chism replied. “But we came out in the second half, played ‘D,’ and they only made nine shots in the second half.”

And Chism made two free throws with 18 seconds left to extend UT’s lead and cap the scoring at 89-86. And the Gators — like Memphis and Kentucky the past two weeks — couldn’t answer before the final buzzer.

GREAT PRIDE, GREAT RESPECT

Reminded of his 49.3 percent free-throw shooting heading into Wednesday’s game, Chism laughed and said, “You’re being nice. It stinks.”

“But I boxed everything out,” Chism said. “I didn’t hear (the crowd). I just had to focus and do what Coach (Bruce) Pearl told me: ‘Release high and let it fly.’”

Moments like those — and moments like struggling senior point guard Jordan Howell hitting five quick points on two first-half jumpers — moved Pearl enough for him to ask the media Wednesday night to focus on “my guys. Please focus on JaJuan Smith, focus on Tyler Smith, focus on Chris Lofton, focus on Wayne Chism making the two free throws.

“Focus on those kids, because they had a will and a determination to win this championship here,” Pearl said. “We did not want to have to put that kind of pressure on ourselves on Sunday. We wanted to do something that hasn’t been done at Tennessee in 41 years, and that was win the outright championship.

“And those kids have got great pride and great respect for the history and tradition of Tennessee basketball.”

Pearl’s pure joy couldn’t hide the obvious, and he eventually pointed it out. The Vols are capable of playing 40 better minutes than the ones they played at Florida. Pearl and his staff will dissect this tape and move on with, they hope, a better idea of how to stop early runs.

Asked if he or his players were “relieved” to have won the SEC outright, and ended the pressure to break the school’s long drought, Pearl said, “Not really, because this was what we set out to do.

“But the one thing I’d ask is that because we were expected to win, let’s not enjoy it any less,” he said. “Sometimes that’s what happens. Celebrate this, and celebrate it because of who you beat. That’s the other thing. Yes, I want you to talk about those kids, but the teams that we beat ... but how tough was it to win in (the 0-Dome), with the way Florida played?

“Florida was playing themselves into the NCAA tournament tonight.”