Vols in win-win situation going into SEC tournament

Tennessee's Lamonte Turner is guarded by Georgia's Juwan Parker during Saturday's game in Knoxville. Turner scored nine points, all of them in crucial moments, as the Vols won 66-61 to earn a share of the SEC regular-season title.
Tennessee's Lamonte Turner is guarded by Georgia's Juwan Parker during Saturday's game in Knoxville. Turner scored nine points, all of them in crucial moments, as the Vols won 66-61 to earn a share of the SEC regular-season title.

KNOXVILLE - As Tennessee prepares to begin the postseason tonight in the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference men's basketball tournament, the 13th-ranked Volunteers are just three wins away from another championship.

The question is how long do the Vols really want to stay in St. Louis?

"I don't know of any team that doesn't want to win its conference tournament," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said early this week. "I don't know of any team that doesn't want to go out and win every game."

However, as a veteran of 24 NCAA tournaments as an assistant or head coach, Barnes knows the potential downside to the expenditure of energy and time that comes with playing consecutive days in pursuit of winning a conference tournament that ends on Selection Sunday for the national playoffs.

"You find out where you're seeded, then you've got to get back on the plane, get home that night, late Sunday night, and then you've got to turn around and maybe travel on Tuesday and have to play on Thursday," Barnes said. "I think that's tough."

The Vols found a rhythm in conference play, going 13-5 (23-7 overall) to win a share of the SEC regular-season championship. Now they are somewhat beholden to the whims of the postseason.

If Tennessee loses Friday night and is slotted for a Friday game in the NCAA tournament next week, it would go a full week between games. To the other extreme, the Vols could play in the SEC tournament final Sunday afternoon followed by a Thursday game in the Big Dance in a distant location.

Barnes experienced that latter chain of events during his final year coaching at Providence in 1994, when the Friars won the Big East tournament but were bounced in the NCAA's first round.

"But the fact of the matter is all you can do is control the situation, how it happens, and hope that your team can be focused and just give it everything they have," Barnes said, "and not let the outside noise and everything that comes into this time of year take away from what they have to do to be focused."

With Tennessee widely projected as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament entering the SEC event, there is clearly more at stake for other teams this weekend at the Scottrade Center. Alabama, for example, was considered among the "first four out" of the NCAA tournament by ESPN's Joe Lunardi on Thursday. A strong showing in the SEC tournament could boost the Crimson Tide into the NCAA tournament.

While the Vols' Selection Sunday fate is more secure, there still is some benefits for them to play well this weekend. For one thing, the conference tournament could give Barnes some time to experiment with defenses. He suggested Tennessee might trot out its rarely used zone defense in practice this week, and perhaps the Vols could use a game or two - or three - to refine that option before the do-or-die environment of the NCAA tournament.

A strong showing in the conference tournament also could solidify Tennessee's status as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament or even earn it consideration for a No. 2 seed.

After Tennessee locked up the SEC regular-season co-championship with a win over Georgia last Saturday, Barnes told the team, "This is good, but it can be better."

First up, the SEC tournament.

"There's another championship that can be won," Barnes said. "There's a way you can improve your seeding. That doesn't just apply to us. That applies to every team in the league."

Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.

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