KNOXVILLE - Tobias Harris confirmed the obvious.
Tennessee's fantastic freshman admitted after Friday's practice that the Volunteers' big win at Vanderbilt on Tuesday that broke a stretch of four losses in five games had them feeling better about themselves.
But in Harris' view that's about all it did.
"We're feeling better," Harris said, "but in my mindset we really haven't done too much yet. I think we need to just continue to get better. As a team, there's a lot more growing space for us, and we can't get too happy over a Vanderbilt win. We have a lot of other games to face ahead of us."
That three-game season-ending stretch beings tonight when the Vols (17-11, 7-6 Southeastern Conference) host a disappointing Mississippi State team that's seen a promising season sidetracked by poor losses and trouble off the court.
But UT coach Bruce Pearl has certainly been showing his team film of the when the Bulldogs (14-13, 6-7) beat Arkansas and Florida - two teams that beat UT three times - and swept Ole Miss.
"They're a very dangerous team," he said, "Mississippi State has played their best basketball against the best teams in the conference. They can put four guys on the floor that you can make an argument that on certain nights can be as good as anybody at their position in the league."
UT's unlikely comeback against Vanderbilt was significant in a number of ways. It solidified the Vols' chances of making the NCAA tournament and, with midweek losses by Kentucky and Georgia, brought UT to within a game of second place in the SEC East, which would clinch a bye in the conference tournament.
A loss today, though, would halt any momentum UT gained from Tuesday.
"We won a game and (we're) still in fifth place, so I don't know what it did to solidify anything," center Brian Williams said. "We've got a team coming in Saturday that could put four of the best players on the court in the SEC at one time, so we've got our hands full."
What makes the Bulldogs so dangerous is their ability to make 3-pointers. Mississippi State has been arguably the SEC's most lethal deep-shooting team in the past couple of seasons when the Bulldogs won the SEC tournament in 2009 and reached the tournament final last year.
Inside the Bulldogs have the mountainous Renardo Sidney, who's averaging 23 points and 10 boards in his last two games. The 6-foot-10, 270-pound sophomore has had a tumultuous season that included a suspension for a fight with teammate Elgin Bailey in December.
He was suspended all of last season and the first nine games of this season by the NCAA for receiving improper benefits and providing false information to investigators.
UT's win on Tuesday was more gutsy than flashy, as evidenced by the Vols' stagnant halfcourt offense. But regardless of how the Vols came about it, winning that game was necessary.
Just don't expect anyone to relax.
"You use that feeling as motivation," point guard Melvin Goins said. "We've been on the other end of things quite too many times this year, so we don't want to feel that way again. We've seen how it feels to win, so we just want to go out and play to win and focus on the things that we need to do during the game for the outcome to be what we want it to be."
Said Harris: "We needed that win. We've got to take the same energy that we (had) when we played Vanderbilt into Mississippi State (today). We're just preparing not just for Mississippi State, for ourselves right now. We want to come out here and play the way we want to play. We have a lot to prove still."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com or 901-581-7288. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/patrickbrownTFP.