Tennessee re-entered the Top 25 basketball rankings, and this time Vols' coach Bruce Pearl believes his team earned it.

"At this point of the season, there's some substance to it,'' said Pearl, whose team is ranked No. 19 by the Associated Press and No. 20 by the ESPN/USA Today coaches polls. "After the Texas game (Dec. 17), I don't know we deserved to be top 25.

"But, really, the body of work to this point, with us competing well on the road in defeat as well as the quality victories we have, yeah, I think we're deserving of the ranking.''

The thrilling win that earned the Vols their first ranking since being 23rd in the Dec. 19 AP poll -- an 80-76 victory over Florida at Thompson-Boling Arena Saturday -- came at a price.

Like, $5,000 to be precise.

The SEC office fined UT that amount by order of league procedure after some in the crowd of 24,011 stormed the court after the win over the previously unbeaten Gators.

"We appreciate the fans' enthusiasm and support,'' Vols' athletic director Mike Hamilton said in a release. "However for future games ... celebrate victories in the stands and not on the floor.''

UT plays at Mississippi State at 8 p.m. Wednesday. But if UT fans rush their home court again, SEC rules allow for the Vols to be fined up to $25,000. The third infraction carries a $50,000 fine.

Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley, who attended Saturday's game, was unhappy with UT officials.

"In my opinion, it should have been handled better," Foley said in an Associated Press story. "Before the game starts, if you have an idea that's going to happen and there's nothing you do about it, it makes you wonder how much planning went into it."

Foley, who complained to SEC commissioner Mike Slive, said it's not sour grapes.

"It's not a bunch of losers here making excuses," said Foley, whose Gators dropped from No. 2 in the AP poll to No. 5. "It has nothing to do with the outcome. They beat us fair and square. It's just a matter of running your business the way it should be run and the way this league wants it run."

Pearl said enough is enough.

"I'm not unhappy with our fans or our students,'' Pearl said. "But we did it this one time, let's not do it again.''

Blue Out: Pearl has written a letter to UT donors and season ticket holders imploring them to buy as many tickets as possible for the March 1 Kentucky home game.

"We've talked about how to keep the blue out,'' Pearl said. "I thought the best way to do it was with a personal appeal.

"We said before these tickets go on sale for the general public, if we can sell them to our donors and fans first, we can keep the (Kentucky fans') blue out.''

Not Yet: Pearl said it's too early to say the Vols should be an NCAA tournament team.

"No, not yet,'' Pearl said. "Just the math doesn't allow it.

"You have to win half your conference games, and we've won three.''

Pearl said the non-conference win over Texas and the respectable loss to Memphis will help if the Vols are on the bubble.

Pearl said he believes the SEC could get more than five NCAA bids if UT, Vanderbilt or Arkansas is on the bubble.

"There's a lot of (SEC) teams that have some quality non-conference wins,'' he said, "where we could position ourselves to get more than five (bids).''

The Vols are No. 3 in the CBS Sportsline RPI rankings and No. 8 in the RealTimeRpi.com rankings.

Injury Report: Dane Bradshaw wore a brace on his right wrist and was limited to conditioning drills on Monday. Bradshaw strained his wrist during the second half of the Florida game, but is not expected to miss any playing time.

Top Player: Sophomore guard Chris Lofton was named the SEC Player of the Week. Lofton scored a season-high 29 points against Florida and made a key steal at the end of the game.