KNOXVILLE - Because it was the best option available at the time, the Tennessee men's basketball team won a lot of games with defense last season.
With the Volunteers having shown vast improvement on offense this season but struggling in that regard Saturday against Alabama, they had to go back to their roots.
It may be the wake-up call they needed.
The third-ranked Vols - who could move into the No. 1 spot in the country when the polls are released today - used a late block by Grant Williams and a defensive stand that ended with the Crimson Tide called for traveling to win 71-68 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
It was reminiscent of last season, when a hungry, defensive-minded Tennessee team surprised most with 26 total wins and a share of the Southeastern Conference regular-season championship. The individual offensive improvements from last season to this year have made the need for that same mentality not necessary.
That is, until Saturday, when the shots quit falling and the Vols (16-1, 5-0) had to rely on their work at the other end of the court against the Tide (11-6, 2-3).
Alabama sophomore guard John Petty, who got 20 of his 30 points in the second half, didn't score in the final 9:52 after his 3-pointer from the left corner put the Tide up 59-58. Tennessee coaches decided to have Jordan Bowden shadow Petty the rest of the way, taking away the Tennessee junior's defensive help responsibilities, and Petty responded by missing his final couple of shots. That included what initially looked like an open 3-point attempt from the corner with 1:22 remaining that was partially blocked by Williams.
Bowden was also the defender on the Tide's last offensive play, when Petty got the ball and traveled while trying to work his way around the 6-foot-5 guard.
Statistically, the Vols are very close to where they were last season. They have allowed an average of 66.1 points per game on 38 percent shooting this season, with opponents making 31 percent from 3-point range. Last season, when defense was their calling card, they gave up an average of 65.7 points on 41 percent shooting, with opponents making 32 percent from 3-point range.
But they're not the same. Inconsistency has plagued them recently. Florida made nine 3-pointers in the first half on Jan. 12, but the Vols shut the Gators down in the second half to win 78-67. Arkansas and Alabama combined for 89 points on 52 percent shooting and made 12 3-pointers in the second halves of Tennessee's past two games.
Can the Vols get back to what they were last season?
"Not unless their mentality changes," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said Saturday. "It's not like we haven't spent an equal amount of time, and maybe in the last two weeks, probably more time. We've probably put more time in defensively than we have anything else.
"That's one thing we talked to the team about last night. We should be at a point now where we shouldn't have to talk about details in the offensive end, getting to corners and doing your job. We should be working on more detail and intricate things of the game. Defensively, it's a mentality, and this will show them how it's just a mindset. We hadn't had it the way we need to have it for a couple of games, and we've got to get it, or it will catch up with us like it did today."
Barnes, 64, is in just his fourth season at Tennessee, but he has been a head coach for parts of four decades. He knows no team gets away with mistakes forever.
"I think you have to give (Alabama coach) Avery (Johnson) a lot of credit for doing what he wanted to do, isolating who we wanted to isolate, spreading us out and transitioning," Barnes said. "Never happened all year long - we scored two baskets and they came back and scored two baskets in transition. That hasn't happened to us all year. That's where the guys don't have the defensive mentality. We're just jogging back after scoring; we're not as hungry on that end as we need to be.
"Can we work on it harder? I'm not sure how we can work on it harder, because I still think it's a mindset that we have to realize and dive back into it."
But if the Vols needed a reminder of what they were just a season ago, the final 10 minutes of Saturday's game - when they had to make stops - may have provided just that.
Alabama shot 3-for-13 in the final 9:52 after Petty's last points.
"These are the tough games you have to stay locked in, have to be engaged or you lose," Tennessee junior point guard Jordan Bone said. "We don't want that. We don't want that at all. This game definitely helped us get back into the mindframe that we have to lock in on the defensive end.
"Hopefully this is the start of being that defensive team that we were last year."
Barnes hopes for that, too.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.