KNOXVILLE - The Tennessee men's basketball team's stretch of overachieving is a distant memory.
The Volunteers now look like a team running on fumes after losing five times in seven games in February.
Perhaps the start of March can snap them out of their slump. The most important month in college basketball begins ideally for the Vols, with a trip to LSU to face the last-place team in the Southeastern Conference tonight.
"I think teams bounce back," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Monday. "These guys have done that. I can tell you they did some things as a team yesterday together. Some were in the gym working, and this morning a number of them have come through, because they care.
"They want to be good, and it has been a learning process. Like I said earlier, we've had to work through some different lineup changes, but we've got a good group of guys. I expect them to come in today and get busy working and get ready for their next game."
Four losses in five games sank Tennessee from the NCAA tournament bubble to needing wins to ensure eligibility for the National Invitation Tournament, which still would be a good finish to a season that began with minimal expectations.
Tennessee's competitiveness against the ranked opponents on the schedule in November and December provided hope for the future, and the young talent helped the Vols put together strong finishes to December and January and generate unexpected stakes for February even after the injury to John Fulkerson and dismissal of Detrick Mostella.
In February, though, Tennessee recorded its four lowest-scoring games of the season. Two of the losses were after the Vols led by 19 and 14 points, and two were blowouts of 25 and 27 points. In the other defeat, Tennessee fell behind by 14 points at home and trailed for all but three seconds.
"You've got to work through situations with your team, whether it's guys in the lineup, out of the lineup, injuries, dismissals - whatever it may be," Barnes said. "You've got to keep your team focused and keep going. I think with our team that I do think our guys are playing hard. I do think that, but I also think other teams are playing hard, too.
"You go back to our last two games against two teams - every team goes through what South Carolina has gone through, we've gone through it, Vanderbilt's gone through it - but two teams at the beginning of the year that were considered NCAA teams. I think with their experience coming down the stretch, they're really focused."
Barnes stopped short of saying the NCAA tournament bubble talk provided a distraction for his team, but he acknowledged there are factors that can affect a team's focus as the season nears crunch time.
"It's harder than you might think," he explained. "I was talking to one of my assistants today, and there's players this time of year, and I'm not just saying in our program, but I can tell you in the past, their mind is on anything but winning. They're thinking about going to the (NBA). They're thinking about a lot of different things.
"There's people in their ears, families saying you've got to be doing this and you've got to be doing that, and other outside people, it's all real that we have to deal with. The fact is, I do think that when you look at our last two opponents, there's no doubt their experience and understanding where they are and what they're playing for is a factor.
"It is something that I think our guys are going through and learning, that it's not easy. Winning's not easy, and it gets tougher as the year goes on."
Shortly after Saturday's loss at South Carolina, sophomore forward Kyle Alexander was adamant Tennessee would bounce back because of the energy and desire he sees daily from his teammates.
"A lot of teams during this time, when you've lost a couple of games, they kind of give up or just kind of play out the season," he said. "This group of guys, I know we're still hungry. We're going to keep fighting. If we keep fighting, we can still achieve something special for ourselves, whether we make the (NCAA) tournament or not.
"We're definitely going to keep fighting and we're not going to lay down."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.