The Tennessee Volunteers entered January with a 13-0 record and with the No. 1 ranking in college basketball.
They went 4-4 in the year’s first month and enter February tied for ninth in the Southeastern Conference standings. The lowest of the lows took place Jan. 7, when the Vols were humbled at Florida, 73-43, and those same Gators will visit the Food City Center on Saturday (noon on ESPN) looking for the regular-season series sweep and to continue Tennessee’s struggles.
“Our guys have done what we’ve asked them to do,” Tennessee 10th-year coach Rick Barnes said Friday in a news conference. “We have a way of doing things win, lose or draw, and we expect to continue to get better. We’re just now into February, and our goal has and will always be to be the best team that we can be at the end of the year.
“Along the way you obviously want to win basketball games, but we’re not entitled to win any games if we’re not going to do everything every night to win those games.”
Saturday will feature eighth-ranked Tennessee’s annual “checkered” look inside its arena, with the No. 5 Gators representing the fifth SEC foe this season to show up in Knoxville nationally ranked.