Trailing South Carolina by 12 points at halftime in his first SEC road game, UT coach Bruce Pearl bypassed procedure.

"Normally, Bruce talks to his assistants before addressing the players,'' said Vols' assistant Scott Edgar, a decorated coach who won a Conference USA title at UAB last year and a Southwest Conference title while at Arkansas. "This time, he went right to the players and told them what a great opportunity we had.''

A road win in the SEC speaks volumes, and a comeback win from double digits down is an even-louder statement.

Now, it's a matter of Tennessee holding serve with a home win at Thompson-Boling Arena at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday against upstart Georgia (10-4 overall, 0-1 SEC).

"It (South Carolina) was a great win on the road,'' said Dane Bradshaw, a hero in the 76-69 victory Sunday with a career-high 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds and four assists. "But we could negate that by losing to Georgia.''

As it turned out, the Vols' victory against the Gamecocks on Sunday wasn't enough to return UT to the top-25 rankings, even with UT's gaudy 10-1 record (1-0 SEC) and No. 16 RPI ranking.

That's fine with Pearl. He wants nothing more than for his team to continue to play hard, and that was the halftime message delivered Sunday.

"I told them I didn't like their body language,'' said Pearl, who eschewed the Xs and Os to work on his team's psyche. "We talked about staying positive.''

Pearl felt so strongly about the message that he called a timeout in the middle of UT's second half run to remind his players of as much.

"I called time out early in the second half, uncharacteristically, to tell my team, 'Guess what? You're back in the game down seven points,' " Pearl said. "That, and I wanted to give C.J. Watson a little rest. I knew a TV timeout was coming, and so he had the benefit of sitting for a few minutes while only 16 seconds went off the clock.''

Such little coaching moves appear to be making the difference for Tennessee, which appears to need only finish the SEC season with a .500 record to get serious consideration for the NCAA tournament.

"Our record is 1-0,'' said reserve guard JaJuan Smith, whose hustle plays and instant offense has been pivotal in the Vols' road wins at Texas and South Carolina. "We've got to put the 9-1 (non-conference record) behind us. It's a new season now.''

Curtains Drawn: UT athletic director Mike Hamilton said the increased interest in the Vols has led him to draw the curtains that hide the upper seats in Thompson-Boling Arena.

"Based on the demand going into the weekend and the fact the students will be back, I think we'll have a really good crowd,'' Hamilton said. "We've told our marketing and ticket department we want to get everyone in that we can.

Bobble Bruce: Each of the first 1,000 fans at Wednesday night's Georgia game will receive a Bruce Pearl Bobblehead doll. Single tickets for the game are $14, or fans can purchase a Family Fun Pack for $44.

To purchase tickets, call 865-656-1200.

Tip Time: The Big Orange Tipoff Club, the primary booster organization for UT men's and women's basketball, will hold its first buffet luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Calhoun's on the River.

John Ward, the voice of the Vols for 30 years, will be the guest speaker.

For more information call 865-588-5433, or check out the Web site www.utfan.com/tipoff.