KNOXVILLE - Perhaps one of the proudest fans among the 19,349 in attendance for the Tennessee men's basketball team's upset of No. 4 Kentucky on Tuesday night at Thompson-Boling Arena was one of the Volunteers' most iconic former players.
Bernard King, whose No. 53 hangs in the arena's rafters, sat behind the Vols' bench after speaking at their shootaround earlier and flashed a big smile in the final seconds of the 82-80 triumph.
Also in attendance was Ron Slay, who averaged more than 21 points per game his senior season at Tennessee, when he was the 2003 Southeastern Conference player of the year.
"They both came and talked to us, and Bernard King talked to us the most," Vols forward Admiral Schofield said. "He told us the story about when he played at Kentucky and someone flipped a cigarette in his hair, and he said in the (postgame press conference) 'We don't lose to Kentucky.' It just weighed home with the team. I think everybody focused in on that we don't lose at home. The biggest thing is we wanted to protect our own court, and we haven't been really doing that this season.
"Our main focus tonight was coming out, playing hard and giving this crowd a show and giving this crowd some energy and showing them that this team is something to take serious. We need your support and love your support, but don't just come out for the big games. Come out for every game, and I think tonight they're really starting to believe in us a little more."
King's story was about an 88-82 loss at Kentucky in January 1975, with his postgame comment a vow he kept. Tennessee won its next five games against Kentucky during his career, and King went on to have a Hall of Fame career in the NBA with the Nets, Warriors, Knicks and Bullets.
Tuesday's win was Tennessee's 69th against its border rival, and for this year's Vols (11-9, 4-4 SEC) it was their seventh game against a team ranked in this week's Associated Press Top 25.
"I'd like to think our guys are growing up," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "They've played 20 games and one of the toughest schedules in the country. I hope they're learning how hard it is to win and what you have to do to win."
The win was especially impressive for Barnes, who guided an undersized, undermanned team loaded with freshmen and sophomores to a win against the star-studded Wildcats (17-3, 7-1), Kentucky's four starting freshmen were all top-15 recruits in the 2016 class, according to 247sports.
"I don't want to take away from Tennessee and what Rick did," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "Their game plan of getting back, we didn't get much in transition. They played more physical. They were grinding it, and then trying to drive it. On the fourth pass we stood straight up, and they were just driving by us. We kept saying at every timeout, 'Do you understand what they're doing? They're going side-to-side with the ball and then someone's going to try to break somebody down on the bounce.'
"When you're coaching young teams and starting four freshmen and playing a couple of sophomores, you get this sometimes. Now we've got to go back, and hopefully this grabs their attention and we get back to how do we have to play as a team to try to beat one of those teams? What we were tonight, we're not. And a lot of that credit goes to Tennessee."
The highest-rated recruit in Tennessee's six-player 2016 class was Kwe Parker (No. 110). Grant Williams, who turned in a brilliant stat-stuffing performance and made the shot of the game in the final 30 seconds, was ranked 204th.
Senior Robert Hubbs III, the only former five-star recruit on Tennessee's roster, scored 25 points, and the Vols also got key contributions from graduate transfer Lew Evans.
"We've had some ups and downs," said Barnes, in his second season at Tennessee. "I don't like to talk about being young, because I think there's a lot of teams in the country that are young. I just think it's about me doing my job to teach them how to win and teaching what goes into losing.
"They've worked hard for us. They have. I hope they love this feeling, because this is where we want to move our program."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.