KNOXVILLE - Rick Barnes took over at Tennessee prior to the 2015-16 basketball season and didn't have a specific vision except to build a program.
At the conclusion of his second season his team was 31-35, and he had just witnessed the final possession of the Volunteers' 59-57 loss to Georgia in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament, a possession in which multiple players had opportunities for what could have been a tying or winning shot.
Admiral Schofield remembers that, too. He was the one who eventually took - and missed - that final shot. And he looked around and saw nothing but disappointment around him.
"And I just thought that from that point on, I was going to do everything I could to help lead and be an example of what winning looks like," Schofield said last week.
So last week, as Barnes, Schofield and the rest of the Vols' starting lineup sat at the podium at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, talking about rising from a .500-level basketball team to one soon to surpass 30 wins and qualify for the program's eighth NCAA Sweet 16 in 22 appearances, a vision clearly had come together.
That 2017 season-ending loss to Georgia was the start of what's now a two-year run with a record of 57-14.
"I'd say that moment and also Coach Barnes running us a lot," Schofield joked. "I think that was a big motivator for us, too, to stop losing so we didn't have to run as much."
The current seniors - Schofield, Kyle Alexander and walk-ons Lucas Campbell and Brad Woodson - suffered 19 losses as freshmen. Lamonte Turner suffered them as well, albeit as a redshirt. Sixteen more as sophomores, when guards Jordan Bone, Jordan Bowden, Turner and forward Grant Williams joined them. They've seen the pits.
Now they're seeing the rewards.
"I always have felt like you have to live one day at a time," Barnes said Monday. "You have to get your players to buy into a work ethic. There is no magic dust that you can sprinkle on anything. It's about getting the guys that you really want to coach and getting them to believe in each other and what we are trying to do and to buy into it.
"I do know, our first year here, we were getting ready to play Tennessee State, I think, and a bowl game got moved around. (Associate head coach) Rob Lanier tapped me on my knee and said, 'Coach, this is what makes this place so special.' Rob had been at Florida and we had 16,000 people in the stands. When you go back four years ago, all we had to hang our hat on was how hard we could play every night. I realized that our fan base and the Vol family was going to support if you were willing to go out and play as hard as you possibly can play. That's all we could do.
"I think they have enjoyed watching this group of guys grow up together. Admiral, Kyle, Lamonte, Brad and Lucas have sat through a 19-loss season and a 15- or 16-loss season. It has been neat watching them get to this point."
Thursday, Purdue awaits. Tennessee played the Boilermakers in November 2017, and the Vols' 78-75 win in the Battle 4 Atlantis may have been the springboard to last season's success.
This season, Purdue can block the Vols from what would be the program's second-ever Elite Eight appearance.
Another step in the vision.
"We're definitely fortunate," said Williams, the two-time SEC player of the year. "We're blessed because not many people have a chance to do this once but we're doing it twice. So we're ready for the challenge. We're capable of anything that's thrown at us. And we're just ready to get out there and play."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.