KNOXVILLE -- Unless it can knock off high-flying LSU in Baton Rouge on Wednesday night, Tennessee will venture into territory its men's basketball program hasn't seen in more than two decades.
The Volunteers, currently on their first five-game losing streak since 2001, haven't lost six games in a row since ending Wade Houston's final season as coach in a 5-22 campaign in 1994.
Tennessee went 1-7 in February as a season that once showed signs of hope fell into a tailspin, and while it may be Donnie Tyndall's first year as the Vols' coach, it's not the first time he's been through a season like this one.
"Losing, period, can wear on your team a little bit," he said Monday. "I don't care who you are or how strong-minded you are, losing's not fun, and it can wear on you a little bit. I had a reporter from Florida tell me after the game the other night Billy Donovan's (first) two years at Florida, he had losing seasons.
"It's frustrating. It's frustrating for the coaches, the players, the fans -- it's frustrating for my wife -- but at the end of the day, in building a program ... our first two years at LSU (where Tyndall was an assistant coach from 1997 to 2001), we won nine the first, 12 the second and then our third year we won the SEC and won 28 games.
"It's a process, and if at any point in time as the coach I forget that, or I'm not understanding to that, then that's when you can lose vision of what's important, and that's getting your players better every day."
In his first season at Morehead State in 2006-07, the Eagles won 10 of their first 16 games and got off to a 6-2 start in Ohio Valley Conference play after being picked to finish last in the league.
Morehead State then lost nine games in a row, five of those by five points or less, and ended a 12-18 season with a first-round OVC tournament exit.
Tyndall believes there are similarities between that season and his first at Tennessee.
"The way that we coach our team and the way we condition, our teams always have started off pretty well and, in most cases, ended pretty well, too," he explained. "I think we're maybe ahead of the rest of the competition from a toughness standpoint and a conditioning standpoint early, but at some point in time that catches up with you.
"When I took over at Morehead in a very similar situation -- a team that was picked dead last in the league -- we were in midseason form early. We started league play 6-2, then I think we lost nine or 10 in a row. It happens because eventually that talent level carries over, or is just too much to overcome.
"Our second year, we were .500. Our third year, we went to the NCAA tournament and won a game, and by our fifth year we went back to the NCAA tournament and beat Louisville."
Tyndall's second recruiting class at Morehead State included future NBA star Kenneth Faried and two eventual All-OVC players, and that helped the Eagles improve their talent level.
Whether he and his staff can land similar impact players to level the playing court for the Vols, particularly with the uncertainty of his future amid the NCAA investigation into his former program at Southern Mississippi clouding their efforts, remains to be seen.
It's been clear Tennessee is playing this season shorthanded and even clearer the Vols need to improve their overall talent level to move up the SEC's pecking order.
"It's a progression," Tyndall said. "It's a thing that takes time. It's about recruiting and building your team. It's about developing the players you have, and we're going to do the same thing here. It can be frustrating.
"I know when we lost nine in a row or whatever it was at Morehead, no one was more miserable than me. But our kids were playing hard, and they're doing the same thing here. They're competing.
"You've got to have talent, you've got to have players and it's just as important, though, to continue to develop the guys you have in your program, which is what we did there and we're going to do here."
Even amid a losing skid during his first season at Tennessee, Tyndall insisted he's achieving his big-picture focus.
"Our players are improving," he said. "You look at a guy like Tariq (Owens), he's gotten better. A guy like Derek Reese, who hardly played last year, is now getting seven (points) and seven (rebounds) in conference games. He's improved. Armani Moore went from a role player to a guy that has been SEC player of the week.
"They're getting better, but the teams we're playing are pretty darn good."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.