Tennessee men's basketball head coach Donnie Tyndall NASHVILLE -- Tennessee's first basketball season under Donnie Tyndall is now into its third part.
The implications for this one are much more clear than the first two.
The month of March means tournament time in college basketball, and with it comes the reality that every game could be your last.
One loss, whether it's because of a missed shot, a missed box out or a bad bounce, and it's all over.
"We tell our team there's three seasons within the season," Tyndall said Wednesday afternoon as his team held its shootaround at Bridgestone Arena, where the Volunteers play Vanderbilt tonight in the SEC tournament.
"You have your non-conference, in which we had a pretty good run; the conference play, where we probably didn't do quite as well as we'd hoped; and then you've got the postseason where everyone's (got) a clean slate and is zero and zero.
"Everyone should be excited to play, and I think our team will be."
Most of the players who take the court in orange tonight will be new to the postseason scene, so while that should create some nerves, Tennessee enters tournament play with little to lose.
The Vols are neither on the NCAA tournament bubble nor playing for a National Invitation Tournament spot.
All that should be on Tennessee's mind is continuing its season and knocking off its rival to avoid the program's first losing season in a decade.
"To us, it's like a new season," forward Armani Moore said late Wednesday morning before the Vols boarded the bus and left for Nashville. "We had our regular season. It didn't go so hot, but now we've got a second chance.
"That's one thing our coaches always preach: Play every game like it's our last game," he added. "It's not going to stop now. Our mentality is the same. We want to go out and compete, and hopefully we can come out with the W."
The last time Tennessee saw Vanderbilt, the Commodores were torching the nets at Thompson-Boling Arena to the tune of a 54-point second half that turned a 13-point deficit into a 73-65 win that avenged the Vols' improbable come-from-behind overtime win in Nashville two weeks earlier.
Vanderbilt made all but three of its 19 shots and were unconscious from 3-point range, swishing nine of those 11 shots.
"They shot some crazy like 80-something percent the last time we played them in the second half, and that just can't happen," said Josh Richardson, Tennessee's All-SEC guard.
"It's not fun to watch on film, I'll tell you that," he added. "Just sitting there watching them make 3 after 3 after 3 just makes you rethink how you've got to approach this next game. I think we're ready."
The second half, not the whole overblown fiasco between Moore, Vanderbilt guard Wade Baldwin and Commodores coach Kevin Stallings, is the fresher memory for Tyndall.
"They dominated the last 14, 15 minutes of that game," he said. "We were up 13 at one point and seemed to be doing the right things, and they just kind of took the game away from us. They deserved credit for that, but I think on the flip side our guys see where we didn't defend the right. We didn't make them miss at the defensive end.
"I think they'll have a little more grit and determination to try to do that tomorrow."
Tennessee's overtime win in Nashville included Robert Hubbs banking in a tying shot at the buzzer and the two teams swapping the lead 15 times.
Both sides seem to expect another close, unpredictable game tonight.
"You just never know. You never know," Stallings said. "Who would've predicted what happened in the first game? No one. Who would've predicted what happened in the second game? No one. It's what makes the game interesting. Tennessee has a good team, and Josh Richardson's a terrific player.
"They have a lot of weapons and lot of ways to come at you, so it'll be a hard-fought, hard-played game, and the team that probably takes the best care of the ball and is able to produce the best shots and does the best job on the defensive end and on the boards will be the team that wins."
And that team will go on to play in another win-or-go-home game against Arkansas 24 hours later.
"Anything can happen," Richardson said. "We have to believe we can go out here, play well and string a couple wins together. If you come out with any fear, the other team's going to swallow you up this time of the year."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.