OKLAHOMA CITY --Sooner or later, Tennessee was going to lose a basketball game.

So now what?

It's the question UT men's coach Bruce Pearl has been waiting to answer since the start of the season.

"One challenge we've had in the past is we would not handle adversity,'' said Pearl, speaking of the recent track record of UT men's basketball. "We have an opportunity now to handle some.''

Oklahoma State put an 89-73 whipping on the No. 23 Vols on Thursday in a game the UT players won't soon forget.

Senior C.J. Watson got out-played by a freshman. Sophomore Chris Lofton was shutdown by a 6-foot-9 defender. Dane Bradshaw was outhustled. Andre Patterson met his match on the boards, and the biggest of UT's Big Men, Major Wingate, couldn't play big enough to lead his team to a victory.

Pearl's concern after the Vols beat No. 6 Texas a week ago (95-78) was his players wouldn't realize how much improvement was needed for them to compete in the SEC.

Thanks to coach Eddie Sutton and Oklahoma State, that's no longer a problem.

"This is what a lot of SEC teams look like,'' Pearl said. "There are a lot of teams that play like Oklahoma State in the SEC; we'll have to respond to it.''

Stanley Asumnu, Bradshaw and Patterson, three of the Vols' front-line players, exited the Ford Center with similar sentiments.

"It was defense and rebounding,'' said Asumnu, who had a team-high five rebounds. "We didn't come out with enough focus.''

Bradshaw agreed.

"We've been able to get away with teams shooting a high percentage by forcing turnovers,'' Bradshaw said. "We had it scouted out pretty good. The things they pulled off, we knew it was coming.''

Patterson said the Vols just didn't have enough fire early.

"We know how and why we lost that game,'' Patterson said. "This loss is hard to suck up. If we would have played the whole game like we did in the second half, we wouldn't be having this conversation.''

Alas, the Vols fell behind 42-26 before cutting their deficit to one in the second half.

Lofton, held to two points in the first half, said the comeback will pay dividends, even if UT did fall short.

"It's a big factor knowing we can come back,'' Lofton said. "If we get down later down the road, now we know we can come back.''

Said Patterson: "We probably would have just given up last year.''

Sutton's Take: Sutton has seen a lot of basketball en route to 789 wins -- second most among active college coaches.

And Sutton said he likes what he sees from Pearl.

"He'll be a great fit for Tennessee,'' Sutton said. "Defensively, the press he uses utilizes a lot of switching; you just don't see a lot of teams doing it.

"It's hard to run your offensive sets against them.''

Sutton said Pearl has a chance to solve one of the greater mysteries of college basketball.

"It's always baffled me why Tennessee couldn't have a men's program like their women's program,'' Sutton said. "When I coached at Kentucky, they had some really good teams there.''