Thompson-Boling Arena was warm and toasty on the inside Saturday afternoon. Another big crowd. Another big win.

As metaphors go, how appropriate that the 18,602 exited to find the first snowflakes of the season swirling in the darkness.

A big chill awaits as the second half of the SEC basketball season begins.

Tennessee hit the halfway point in fine form Saturday. An 86-72 verdict over Ole Miss sends the Vols to 16-3 overall and 7-1 in the conference race.

Surprising? Of course it is. Everyone from Gainesville to Lexington is surprised.

"We're better than I thought,'' coach Bruce Pearl summed up the Vols' body of work thus far.

"But,'' he added. "I know what's coming up. I know where we're at.''

What's coming up is that five of the eight remaining regular-season games will be played on the road.

Do the math and that leaves only three more feel-good events in Thompson-Boling.

The first half of the SEC schedule played in UT's favor. Now it's payback.

No other SEC team faces five road games between here and the finish line.

First stop, Lexington on Tuesday night. The other destinations are, in order, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Vanderbilt.

See any automatic "Ws" in there?

Pearl generally doesn't look more than one game ahead. Still, he used his post-game radio show to urge UT fans to travel to Georgia on Saturday.

"I say loud and clear, get tickets to Georgia,'' Pearl said.

"We've got to sweep those guys and we don't do it unless we've got a following.''

He'd make the same plea for a Kentucky crusade, of course, if it were possible to get tickets at Rupp.

There will be a splotch of orange here and there, but that's one battle the players will have to fight on their own.

Right about now it should be pointed out that going on the road is hardly the death sentence it has been in some years past.

The Vols steamrolled a great Texas team in Austin. They steamrolled a not-so-great Mississippi State team in Starkville.

They rallied from 15 down to steal one at South Carolina.

"We're more confident now than in the past,'' senior Stanley Asumnu said shortly after hitting seven of nine shots against Ole Miss. "We're sitting good right now, but we want to continue to improve.''

Right about now it should be pointed out why the Vols are sitting good.

The road wins they've stolen wouldn't mean much if they hadn't locked down their home court. Pearl is 12-0 in Knoxville.

"We've held serve,'' said Pearl. "We've done exactly what we had to do.

"It's tough to win on the road in any league, especially some of the places we've got to go.

"(If you win) It separates you because not many people are going to beat Kentucky at Kentucky, or Florida at Florida or Alabama at Alabama.''

Tennessee has beaten Kentucky at Kentucky exactly once in the past 26 years. Still, Vol fans with long memories should take heart.

Consider the Wildcats' five most recent games in Rupp:

They've lost to Vanderbilt and Alabama and beaten Central Florida, South Carolina and Arkansas by a combined six points.

If the Vols do win in Lexington on Tuesday with an ESPN audience watching, then anything is possible the rest of the way.

If they don't win, they're still tied for the SEC East lead and the dogfight continues. They'll live to fight another day in Athens and Gainesville and so on.

Because the Vols have taken care of business in the first half of the race they are in a position few could have imagined, even in their wildest dreams.

In Asumnu's words, they're sitting good.

But they better not be sitting on their laurels. The journey gets tougher. A big chill awaits.

Or, depending how they play their hand, it could be a big thrill.

"These are opportunity games,'' said Pearl. "This is where the conference is going to get won and lost right here.''

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