KNOXVILLE — Bruce Pearl spent the early part of the week preaching identity and toughness to his University of Tennessee basketball team.
But if the coach of the Volunteers were grading his team for its performance in Wednesday night’s 75-53 Southeastern Conference win over LSU, he’d give an incomplete.
“Part of my discussion the other day about what our identity is was as much for what’s coming up. It really wasn’t about LSU,” Pearl said after practice Thursday afternoon. “LSU’s teams play physical, but that message has got to continue and have some legs.”
UT (13-7, 3-2) cruised past the undermanned Tigers (10-10, 2-3) with little difficulty, and Saturday’s trip to Ole Miss will bring a much better report on UT’s efforts to rediscover its identity.
“The real barometer,” Pearl said, “for the toughness and the real barometer for where we are as we progress defensively is Ole Miss on Saturday. Offensively, they’re good [and] they’re hard to guard. That whole identity thing is really going to come into play.”