KNOXVILLE - Many outside the Tennessee men's basketball program recall the end of last season's Southeastern Conference schedule, when the Volunteers were 13-5 in the league and co-champions with Auburn.
Relatively few recall the start, except for the Vols themselves. And they want to make sure that doesn't happen again this season.
The nationally third-ranked Vols (11-1) begin SEC play Saturday at 3:30 p.m. with a home game against Georgia (8-4) and first-year coach Tom Crean, previously the coach at Indiana.
The game will be televised on the SEC Network, and a Tennessee win would match the program's 12-1 start in 2007-08, a 30-win season that ended with a loss to Louisville in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
"The games that I've watched, I think like any first-year coach in a program, not only is he trying to get what he wants to get done, but he's also trying to move pieces and parts around to make it fit, and he's done a good job with that," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of Crean at his Wednesday news conference. "I watched a little bit of their game with Arizona State live. It was a tough loss for them because they really played great throughout the whole game.
"But what I like about them is that you've been able to watch them get better and progress under what he wants them to do. Defensively, they're very long and have great length and size inside. I think what he's done is gone in and evaluated what he's seen and he's trying to put it together in terms of how he wants it not just for this year, but moving forward."
The Vols travel to face Missouri and Florida next week before hosting Arkansas on Jan. 15.
Admiral Schofield recalls one specific thing from the start of the Vols' 2017-18 SEC schedule.
"We lost," he said, referring to the Vols' defeats at Arkansas and Auburn.
"I don't want to start that way. And I really don't want to finish that way."
Those Vols rebounded to win 13 of their final 16 games and share the league title.
This season's team is more offensively talented than last year's, having averaged more than 11 more points per game while shooting seven percentage points higher for the season. While the defensive numbers are similar (65.7 points allowed, 41 percent shooting last season; 66.4 points allowed on 38 percent this season), Barnes has harped on how the team could still get much better on that end of the court.
So while the Vols are mindful of last season's slow start in league play, they also understand that if they play as they're capable, that shouldn't be the case starting this SEC season.
"From what I remember, we didn't start off too well," point guard Jordan Bone said last week. "We have to learn from that. Right now we want to start this thing off in a good way, so we can keep this momentum going into the postseason.
"We want to do really great as a team."
That starts Saturday.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.