One of the catch phrases for Tennessee men's basketball entering the season is that "It's a whole new game.''

UT coach Bruce Pearl said it had better be, after watching his team labor through an 86-78 victory over Division II Southern Indiana last Thursday.

Pearl said he'll be looking for significant improvement when Tennessee hosts Division II Carson-Newman at 7 tonight at Thompson-Boling Arena.

"This team has got to get better,'' Pearl said. "It's got a long ways to go. Yeah, we're playing hard, but that will only take you so far.

"I didn't think our execution was very good against Southern Indiana, and it hasn't gotten better enough to suit me in the last four days of practice. The players know that.''

Pearl knows Carson-Newman presents different problems than Southern Indiana.

"They'll do different things; they'll bring pressure differently, and they run some different offensive sets,'' Pearl said. "They'll present us with different challenges and expose us in different ways. They gave Tennessee State a good game (Monday night) so I would expect they can expose some stuff for us.''

Tennessee beat Carson-Newman 95-59 last season.

Pearl said he won't necessarily measure UT's progress by the final score.

"What we need to do right now, day after day and week after week, is come to practice to get better,'' Pearl said. "Don't just survive practice. Come into practice saying, 'I've got to space better, I've got to screen better, I've got to understand the offense better.'

"Otherwise, we're going to stay the same. Other teams get better, and then we're in trouble.''

Two of Carson-Newman's three returning players in the starting lineup are former area standouts.

Andy Tipton is a 6-foot-7 sophomore from Maryville, who averaged 8.7 points and three rebounds per game last season.

Stan Davis, a 6-5 senior from Farragut, averaged 4.7 points and 3.3 rebounds.