A college basketball fan from Peoria wandering into Thompson-Boling Arena on Friday night would not have made the mistake of assuming he had stumbled onto the Final Four.

Tennessee was drubbing Murray State in fits and starts. The crowd seemed to lose interest at times. So did the Vols. The crowd left early. The Vols were required to stick around to shake hands with a lesser foe vanquished by 25 points, 89-64.

After which, coach Bruce Pearl announced:

"It's step-up week.''

That goes for the team and, Pearl hopes, for the fans.

Between now and Christmas, Thompson-Boling should be rocking.

Memphis comes to town Wednesday, followed by Western Kentucky on Dec. 16.

After a brief detour to Nashville to face Oklahoma State, the Vols will be back home for Texas on Dec. 23.

In short, the preliminaries are over.

A young and still nebulous Tennessee team is headed down a gauntlet that will begin laying the groundwork for March, for better or worse.

"Are we ready?'' Pearl asked rhetorically. "We're going to find out.''

At first glance, the Vols in fact don't look ready.

Too many issues yet unresolved. Too much youth. To get specific, too many turnovers, too few assists, too many missed free throws.

At least that's the evidence from the trip to New York last week, which resulted in double-digit losses to Butler and North Carolina.

That was step-up week, too, and for the most part, the Vols stepped back.

Now, here come four teams ranked in the top 50 of the Sagarin Ratings.

"Our next four games will be against teams who will be in the NCAA tournament and a couple of 'em will be highly seeded,'' said Pearl.

"We had a shot at two teams so far I know will be in the tournament and we weren't good enough to beat them.''

Now it's step-up week, er, step-up month again.

Tennessee played three of the four last year and was good enough to beat only one.

The Vols stunned Texas in Austin last Dec. 17, 95-78, still one of the most eye-catching scores of the 2005-06 season.

They lost at Memphis 88-79. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, handed the Vols their worst loss of the season, 89-73, in Oklahoma City.

The Cowboys are big and strong again - and 8-0.

Memphis is a potential Elite Eight or Final Four team. The Tigers ran Kentucky out of the gym in Maui.

Texas is rebuilding, but rebuilding with McDonald's and Parade All-Americans.

"And Western Kentucky is right there with Butler and Wichita State as a top, top mid-major,'' said Pearl.

Butler and Wichita? That should be sufficient warning not to overlook the Hilltoppers, who have already won this year at Georgia.

But maybe it is a mistake to judge Tennessee's state of readiness on its body of work so far.

"You never know what competition will do to your level of play until you get out there,'' said senior Dane Bradshaw.

"I expect us to rise to the occasion.''

Knowing Bradshaw, he will rise to the occasion. But what about freshmen Duke Crews and Wayne Chism and Ramar Smith?

"We're ready as we're gonna be,'' said Crews with a grin. "It's not like we can postpone the games.''

Pearl doesn't want to postpone the games. He wants to sell them out.

The Vols didn't have the home-crowd edge in Madison Square Garden. They need one now, though.

Chris Lofton spoke optimistically Friday night of the sixth man in the stands providing a lift for the five on the court.

"I think everybody's ready for the big competition,'' he said.

"It's what we live for.''

Living for it is one thing. Living through it is another.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.