Vols seek longer SEC tourney stay

KNOXVILLE — Bruce Pearl knows a good joke.

The recent Southeastern Conference tournament history for the Tennessee men’s basketball team is a joke.

“You’ve just got to stay away from those three-night guaranteed (hotel) stays at the SEC tournament,” UT’s third-year coach said Monday afternoon. “We’ve not managed to stay there very long. I can understand why our fans would be a bit skeptical.”

Fifth-year senior guard Jordan Howell said this season’s Vols have “embraced” more UT history than the past four teams.

When asked what he and his teammates know about the program’s SEC tourney track record, Howell laughed like his coach.

“It’s not pretty,” he said. “We’ve changed a lot of things around here, but we’re still working on that one.”

Since Wade Houston’s final season in 1991-92, the Volunteers are 5-14 in the SEC tournament.

They have won NCAA tournament games in three of the past eight seasons — twice advancing to the Sweet 16 — but were one-and-done in the SEC tournament all three times. They went 46-19 in Pearl’s first two seasons but 0-2 in the conference tournament.

“I don’t think any (Vols) team’s made it to Saturday in a while,” senior guard Chris Lofton said. “I know I haven’t. I’ve never made it to a second game.”

There has never been a better time for Tennessee to flip the script, and there haven’t been many opportunities to do it, either. The most experienced team in a youthful year, fourth-ranked UT (28-3, 14-2) won the regular-season conference title by two games and is an overwhelming favorite to take the tournament, too.

“We’re in the season of changing history, and we’ve got another chance to turn something around,” senior guard JaJuan Smith said. “Hopefully we’ll just keep on rolling when we get down there.”

Pearl emphatically squashed any doubts about his team’s goal this week.

“We’re certainly not going to throw off just so we’re fresh for the NCAA tournament,” he said. “We’re going to go down there to try to win it.”

Even with a first-round bye, cutting down nets Sunday would require the Vols to earn three victories in three days, with at least two of their opponents — and probably more — fighting for an NCAA tournament berth. UT will play either South Carolina (13-17, 5-11) or LSU (6-10) on Friday, and both have to win this tournament to continue their seasons.

UT, meanwhile, is playing for the first No. 1 NCAA tournament seed in program history — something Pearl and ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi said the Vols have earned to this point.

“From a basketball standpoint, Tennessee is considered the most vulnerable of the No. 1 seeds,” Lunardi wrote Monday. “From an achievement standpoint, only North Carolina has done more.”

According to Lunardi, UT has the nation’s No. 1 RPI ranking, No. 1 strength of schedule and No. 1 nonconference RPI.

Lunardi called that the “triple crown,” and Pearl called it enough for a No. 1 seed regardless of what happens this weekend.

“Right now, with the exception of North Carolina, there is no doubt we’re a No. 1 seed,” Pearl said. “What the weekend holds, I can’t predict. I know the more we win, the better position we put ourselves in, but I don’t know what’s going to happen in the ACC tournament, the Big 12 tournament, the Pac-10 tournament.

“But right now, I would only put North Carolina in front of us. And that’s not (saying) we’re better than any of those other teams. It’s just that our record, our strength of schedule, our RPI are all there. Just do the math.”

Some say there’s more to it than that, though.

Pearl said he believed the NCAA selection committee would focus on every team’s résumés, rather than the names on the front of their jerseys. But he also noted the “perception out there” that non-traditional basketball powers don’t often get No. 1 seeds.

“I don’t get bothered very often by the experts and their opinions,” Pearl said. “People have said we’re not the No. 1 team in the country, and I don’t think we are, either, but we deserve the ranking.

“I don’t know if we’re one of the top four teams in the country, but I guarantee you we deserve that ranking.”

Howell and several of his teammates said their NCAA seed wouldn’t change their confidence or intensity, but Pearl has quoted statistics for weeks that say No. 1 seeds are nearly twice as likely to make the Final Four as No. 2 seeds.

“There are six teams that are probably deserving of a No. 1 seed,” Howell said. “But if we can go in and win the SEC tournament, I think that makes the decision for the committee.”