KNOXVILLE -- The message is one Donnie Tyndall has reiterated to his Tennessee basketball team for months.
Only now are the Volunteers seeing its importance become tangible.
Half of Tennessee's 12 losses this season have been by eight points or less, and five of the Vols' seven Southeastern Conference defeats in the last nine games have been close down the stretch, giving credence to Tyndall's mantra that one play can make all the difference.
The hope of the first-year coach is that his young players are beginning to understand it.
"I've said that from literally our first team meeting the night before school started," Tyndall said Monday. "One play can be the difference between going to a Final Four. One play can be the difference between getting into the NCAA tournament. One play can be the difference in winning a game.
"I think when you make it that important to your players, at first they're probably, 'Yeah, OK, whatever.' Now, as it's unfolded the way it has, there's been times in the film room where I've pointed out this one play was the reason we won the game or this one play was the reason we got the win.
"When you point that out, and they're sitting in the film room saying, 'Gosh, Coach is right, that's exactly right,' they absorb it and, you hope, learn from it. Even if it's not paying off with wins right now, I think maybe as the season goes on, three weeks left, it'll pay off, or even if it's heading into next year with this young group, that they're learning through these experiences and don't make the same mistakes next season."
Tennessee head coach Donnie Tyndall pulls forward Armani Moore, left, and Willie Carmichael III (24) off the court during a timeout with seconds left in overtime in an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015, in Nashville. Both Moore and Carmichael III thought time ran out and the game ended. Tennessee won 76-73.Entering the final four games of the regular season, Tennessee, which hosts Vanderbilt on Thursday night and plays at Florida on Saturday, is 8-6 in games decided by single digits. Given that 14 of their 26 games have been decided by single digits, the Vols figure to find themselves in a couple more tight games as they chase an unlikely postseason berth.
After calling himself "a big dreamer," Tyndall said Tennessee still wants to make the NCAA tournament, but at 14-12 it must win the SEC tournament in Nashville to make that happen.
If the Vols can maintain a winning record, they likely could land in the National Invitation Tournament. Other postseason options, such as the Collegeinsider.com Tournament or the College Basketball Invitational, are on the table for this year only, Tyndall said, because the young Vols would benefit from any extended time together.
"Certainly we'd like to play in some type of postseason (tournament), the next goal being the NIT," Tyndall said. "I just think any chance our team gets to play additional games, as we move forward into next year, these practices and games will help a ton."
Tennessee's coach also believes this season's close losses could be beneficial in the long run.
Outside of 18-point losses to LSU and No. 1 Kentucky -- and the Vols trailed the unbeaten Wildcats by four points with nine minutes left before being outscored 18-4 down the stretch -- Tennessee has been in all of the games it's lost during the current skid.
The Vols had game-tying shots rim out at the buzzer at both Ole Miss and Arkansas and also missed a tying 3 in the final seconds of a loss at Georgia. Tennessee led in Oxford by eight points in the second half and carried a 57-56 lead into the final two minutes. The game against the Razorbacks was tied at the five-minute mark.
Derek Reese missed a tying dunk with less than a minute left against Mississippi State, and the long rebound led to a run-out and three-point play from Fred Thomas in what was a lethal five-point swing.
A layup from Kevin Punter rolled off the rim against Texas A&M with Tennessee down five points inside the final 1:30.
"There's only been one half of one game where I wasn't proud of our effort," Tyndall said, "so to say, 'Well, could you do something different?' or is there a common theme, it's a tough question.
"We don't get any easy baskets," he added, "and in these one- or two-possession games, if you could throw it to the post and get two or three cheap buckets a game, or if you had more playmakers, which the only real playmaker we have from the perimeter is Josh (Richardson), it would make the game a little bit easier for everybody. But that's just an area we struggle in.
"We're grinding. We're fortunate to win the Vanderbilt game, but we've lost some heartbreakers. But I can't fault our effort. I really don't know if there's a common theme, other than we're learning on the fly with a very youthful team."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.