KNOXVILLE - If one thing is clear from Tennessee's first two Southeastern Conference basketball games, it's the young Volunteers will be a hard out on most nights.
Being competitive and playing better than the sum of your parts doesn't always mean wins, however.
It's a lesson Tennessee and its freshman-laden team learned again in a narrow loss to Arkansas on Tuesday night.
"As young as they are, they're playing well," Razorbacks coach Mike Anderson said after his team's 82-78 victory. "(Robert) Hubbs, we all know about him. We've seen him for four years. (Detrick) Mostella and those guys never quit. The (Grant) Williams kid - they've got some very, very good young players. They took a big lead in the first half.
"We were fortunate to just hang in there and get it to a two-point game at halftime. I thought the guys that started the second half really set the tone in the second half and enabled us to keep the lead. Of course, it's a game of runs. They played with a game of runs as well, and we were very fortunate to make some stops going down the stretch."
Half of Tennessee's six losses this season have been by four points or fewer, and the Vols were very much in two of the other three defeats.
If Tennessee showed it had learned how to win games with back-to-back road triumphs, the Vols showed against the Hogs they have not learned how to handle success.
"I think it played a big factor in it," said Hubbs, the team's leading scorer and lone senior. "We can't let that faze us. We've got to continue to build on it. One or two games is nothing. We've got to extend that streak to eight, nine games in a row."
Second-year coach Rick Barnes lamented after the game his team doesn't value winning enough, and learning what it takes to win consistently at a high level is a process.
"As the season goes on, that's what you find out," he said. "On the floor at the end of the game, there were a group of guys that were being competitive. Throughout the game, there were some guys that weren't. As the season goes on, some guys are going to be playing, and how they respond on the bench and how they act and how they take - players have to talk.
"Players have to talk amongst themselves. If you're a player out there and one of your teammates says something to you and you've always got an excuse, or you always have a complaint or you don't listen, those are the guys that will weed themselves out. Over time you'll find out the guys who truly want to win.
"They know that if a teammate gets on them, they need to take it to heart as opposed to always being so insecure and thinking they've got to defend themselves or whatever. We still have a little bit too much of that, where guys want to point the fingers still as opposed to manning up and realizing it's a big-boy game. We've got to earn it; nobody's going to give it to you."
The 6-foot-5 Williams certainly is outplaying both his height and his modest recruiting ranking. He recorded a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double against Arkansas and earned praise from Anderson for how hard he played.
"He's relentless, man," he said. "He's strong and he uses his body to rebound real well. When he tries to post up, he may be undersized, but I tell you what, he plays big and just active. I thought he was really active. He was a great pickup for Rick and the way he plays.
"Even going down the stretch we've got to box him out on the free-throw line. Somehow he comes up with it and they get a 3-point shot. He just never stops. I love his motor. He's got a big-time motor."
As well and as hard as he played, Williams was visibly frustrated the Vols were talking about learning lessons rather than a third straight victory.
"You've got to value the ball," he said. "We've learned that a lot recently, especially with North Carolina. We say we learn, but it just keeps happening, so we've got to do a better job with it. It's happened to us five or six times now, so we have no more excuses. We just have to go out there and change."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.