KNOXVILLE -- Ole Miss may not have been pegged as an NCAA tournament team entering this basketball season, but the Rebels probably are just a couple of wins from getting there.
That has not surprised Tennessee assistant coach Al Pinkins.
After spending the past three years on Andy Kennedy's staff at Ole Miss, Pinkins will return to Oxford and take a seat on the visitors' bench tonight. The Volunteers will be trying to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season against an upstart bunch of Rebels who currently sit third in the Southeastern Conference.
"Ole Miss is always picked in the middle of the pack," Pinkins said before Tennessee practiced Friday afternoon. "I think every year I was there we were picked in the middle of the pack, and I don't know why. What Andy's done with the transfers that he has, blending them in with the rest of the guys, has been remarkable.
"It takes some time when you have four or five guys, different transfers, to blend in with the guys that have been there. ... They're playing well, and we've got to play really, really well to beat them there.
"Just knowing the guys that were there," he added, "I thought they would have a good year."
For the scuffling Vols, a so-called good year remains within reach.
Though Tennessee has dropped six of its last eight games as the schedule has toughened and the limitations of its roster have been exposed, the Vols, picked to finish 13th in the SEC before the season, still have a chance to earn a National Invitation Tournament bid few would have predicted going into Donnie Tyndall's first season as coach.
To get there, Tennessee would have to win at least a couple of its remaining five games, and they're taking the game-by-game approach rather than discussing any postseason possibilities as they try to get out of their current rut.
"It's been tough," forward Derek Reese said. "It's been a couple of plays where if we made certain plays, one or two plays, it could have been completely different. We could've been maybe 10-3 at this time. It kind of just shows you that in the SEC you've got to play every possession very detailed, because one possession could change the whole game.
"We're going to keep fighting. Coach Tyndall has always told us they're going to keep providing the best scouting reports for you. They're going to keep working, and we're going to get past this."
Ole Miss and Stefan Moody won't make that easy, though.
Moody is the SEC's fourth-leading scorer, and in conference games his 18.4-point average ranks behind only Arkansas forward Bobby Portis. The junior college transfer leads the SEC in free-throw percentage and ranks fifth in 3-point shooting percentage. He scored 29 points against Mississippi State on Thursday night.
The diminutive guard essentially has matched the production and shooting touch Marshall Henderson gave the Rebels the past two years -- without the antics.
In Tyndall's eyes, it is veteran point guard Jarvis Summers who is the key for Ole Miss.
"He's a senior, first and foremost," Tennessee's coach said. "He's played in a lot of big games. He's battle-tested. He's poised late in the game. He gets the right guy the right shot if it's not for him, so as good as Moody's been -- and he's certainly been impactful -- I think Summers is the guy that makes them go."
The Vols insist they haven't been stopped by their recent struggles, which includes back-to-back 18-point losses to LSU and No. 1 Kentucky.
"It's basketball. It's what we're all here to do," guard Robert Hubbs said Friday. "We have fun, we enjoy what we do each and every day. You have to be excited to play this game, and it's just another great opportunity for us tomorrow."
Pinkins' homecoming will include a handful of memories and familiar faces, but it's one he also hopes will end with a victory.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "Our guys have got to treat it like a regular game and go in there and execute what we're trying to do. We will be more familiar with them than we will another opponent, but at the end of the day, we've got to execute and stop them and do what we need to do against their different defenses to be able to win the game."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.