KNOXVILLE - Tennessee won.
For every Big Orange basketball fan who wanted to jump off the bandwagon or a bridge after Saturday's loss at Kentucky, and every fan shaking his or her head over this closer-than-expected 58-46 victory over Vanderbilt on Tuesday night, the above sentence shouldn't be ignored.
Tennessee won. Period.
No, it wasn't a thing of beauty or ease, this 24th win of the season in 26 outings (12-1 in Southeastern Conference play). Not all of them are, even for a team that had won 19 in a row before this past weekend, had risen to No. 1 in the country for four straight weeks and now has taken the first step toward another winning streak, albeit against a Commodores crew still winless (0-13) in SEC games.
So even if a UT team hitting 51 percent of its field-goal tries for the season hit just over 40 percent (23 of 56) for a second straight game, no worries. The Vols won.
Even if a Vols squad hitting 36 percent of its 3-pointers overall bagged less than 30 percent of its triples for a second straight game, it's all good. UT won.
Even if the next game on the schedule - a road trip to LSU - comes against the hottest team in the conference after the Big Orange struggled for much of the night to subdue the SEC's worst team, don't worry. Be happy. The Vols won.
And maybe this second worrisome performance in as many outings really isn't anything to worry about. Especially with the NCAA tournament still a month away. Even new No. 1 Duke has looked semi-human on an occasion or two. It's a long season. Ebbs and flows are inevitable. Sometimes knowing you can win without your "A" game is better than embarrassing an overmatched foe.
Beyond that, this was UT's third game in seven days, the Vols having beaten South Carolina at home last Wednesday before visiting Kentucky on Saturday and hosting Vanderbilt on Tuesday.
"This was more like last year," said junior forward Grant Williams. "Our shots weren't falling, but our defense did really well."
The UT defense did so well that VU's 46 points were the fewest scored by a Vols opponent all season other than the 41 tallied by Lenoir-Rhyne on opening night back on Nov. 6.
"Defensively, I thought we were really good," said UT coach Rick Barnes. "One thing I can tell you: You can't coach making shots. We didn't have a good shooting night, but that's part of the game."
And if Barnes saw at least one reason for a second straight poor shooting performance, it also came with a silver lining. Especially after he said of the loss at UK: "Most selfish we've played all year."
But this night he saw something opposite, something to underscore how much Saturday in the Bluegrass may have been an aberration rather than an inclination.
"At times we overpassed the ball, which is something we didn't do Saturday night," he said. "I just think we were tentative. Some of the things we wanted to correct, we overdid it."
But against a team they were lucky to beat in overtime last month, the Vols also led 12-4 in second-chance points, outrebounded VU 40-33 and led the Commodores for over 35 minutes.
"We wanted to focus on competing, having fun," said Lamonte Turner, whose 12 points and four assists nicely complemented Williams' game-high 14 points and 11 rebounds. Admiral Schofield also had 12 points for the Vols.
"We wanted to take the pressure off winning."
Winning 19 straight games can bring pressure, especially when it also brings the nation's No. 1 ranking. Did the pressure of continuing that streak do the Vols in against Kentucky? We may never know. But if UT wins at LSU this Saturday, then gets revenge on the Wildcats a week later inside Thompson-Boling Arena, that explanation can't be completely ignored.
Nor should these words from Barnes.
"These are the dog days," he said of the back side of February. "You've just got to find a way to win."
And regardless of how this one may have looked stylistically, you can never overdo winning.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.