RPI. Selection committee. Those are terms that have become relevant again for Tennessee men's basketball fans.

The NCAA on Thursday released its RPI rankings for the first time in history in an attempt to make the selection process for its postseason tournament less mysterious.

Tennessee (15-3, 6-1 SEC) checked in at No. 4, behind only Duke, Memphis and Villanova.

Since several RPI rankings (including one more or less identical to the NCAA's formula) have previously been available, the Vols' lofty status doesn't come as a shock.

"The RPI, you have to look at it and be concerned with it as much as wins and losses,'' UT coach Bruce Pearl said Thursday. "The RPI is probably the first thing the (NCAA tournament selection) committee will look at.''

The RPI is derived from three component factors: Division I winning percentage (25) percent, schedule strength (50) percent; and opponent's schedule strength (25) percent. Games against non-Division I opponents are not used in calculating the RPI.

The RPI will loom large in determining the 34 at-large berths to the 65-team bracket.

Pearl credited UT's high ranking not only to the Vols' play on the court, but the schedule-making of associate head coach Tony Jones and associate athletic director John Currie.

The Vols are 3-2 against top-50 RPI teams, 8-3 against top-100 teams and 11-3 against top-150 teams.

Only four of Tennessee's opponents fell below the 150 line — there are 334 Division I teams — and none was lower than 229.

The Vols' victory over Texas (RPI No. 13) continues to pay dividends. Tennessee's schedule is rated 10th in the nation in difficulty.

The only three losses are to Memphis (No. 2), LSU (No. 21) and Oklahoma State (No. 82).

"The willingness to play Texas and Memphis and to be able to beat one of them has really kept our RPI where it's at,'' said Pearl.

"The other side of that factor is you don't play the bottom teams. We've done a good job of staying away from that. We've played teams that won their conference last year or are in conference races this year.''

Ole Miss Next: The Vols conclude a three-game homestand Saturday when Ole Miss (13-7, 3-4 SEC) visits for a 3 p.m. tip-off (TV: WVLT).

After getting off to a 3-0 start, the Rebels have lost their past four: at Georgia and at Arkansas; at home to LSU and Florida.

"Most people in the conference would have lost those games as well,'' said Pearl.

"They've got some big guys down on the block. We've seen some length, but we haven't seen this kind of size and physicality.''

Lofton Tribute: Several coaches who have played UT recently were singing the praises of guard Chris Lofton on Thursday's SEC teleconference.

"He has an unbelievable ability that is very, very rare,'' said Florida's Billy Donovan. "And some day he'll play in the NBA because of this.

"He reminds me a lot of Trent Tucker, who played for the Knicks. ... He's got the gift when people are all over him to get it off and make it.''

Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings said Lofton has proved a lot of doubters wrong.

"He was a guy in high school who people were afraid of athletically, and you knew he could shoot the ball very well,'' Stallings said.

"He's really proven people wrong. He's an outstanding player.''

Pearl knew he was inheriting a terrific shooter, but has been pleasantly surprised by the rest of the package. He cited Lofton's strong defensive effort on Shan Foster in a 69-62 win over Vanderbilt on Wednesday.

"Chris is a tremendous shooter,'' said Pearl, "but he's a little better at everything else involved in the game than you might think.''

Mum's the Word: Ole Miss has been plagued by turnovers lately and now the Rebels face the best turnover-producing team in the league in UT.

Coach Rod Barnes isn't going to make a big emphasis out of it, though.

"We've talked about it enough,'' Barnes said. "We did the same thing earlier in the year with free throws.

"I quit talking about it and they started shooting 'em better.''