Tennessee will find itself among 65 teams in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament field for the first time in six years.

UT coach Bruce Pearl, however, will break it down considerably further after the brackets are announced at 6 o’clock tonight (TV: WVLT).

Pearl said he anticipates the No. 14 Vols (21-7) will be a No. 4 seed and draw a relatively close regional. Pearl said his guesses, in order, would be Jacksonville, Fla., Dayton, Ohio, and Greensboro, N.C.

Outside of that, Pearl said he won’t pay much attention to the brackets.

"I won’t even look at the road to the Final Four,’’ Pearl said. "There are going to be four teams in this tournament; whoever they match us up with, and then the two teams in the other game.

"To get to the Sweet 16, all we have to do is win two games and be the best of four teams. That shouldn’t be any more difficult than anything we’ve already done.’’

Tennessee has lost four of its last six games and made an early exit from the SEC tournament in Nashville with a 79-71 loss to fifth-seeded South Carolina on Friday. UT had a bye in the first round after winning the SEC East.

Pearl said he met with the Vols at 6 o’clock Friday night to discuss the performance at the SEC tournament.

"We all felt sick, and the only consolation was we all felt sick together,’’ Pearl said. "I asked the guys a couple of questions: One, can we play better?’’ Pearl said. "They all said ‘yes.’

"And, two, I said what would really be depressing is if the season was over and that was our last game, there in Nashville, and that’s how people would remember us.’’

Pearl said the players were very quiet. One of his goals this week is to get his team to feel better about themselves.

The Vols took some consolation in seeing the Gamecocks knock off Kentucky in the semifinals Saturday.

"South Carolina pretty much underachieved this year,’’ Pearl said. "That’s a good basketball team, and they’re showing here at the end just how good they really are.’’

That said, Pearl saw his team beat the Gamecocks twice, and he knows the Vols were capable of doing it again had they been at their best.

"C.J. Watson played like a first-team All-SEC point guard Friday, but that was about the only positive,’’ Pearl said. "The loss bothered this team a lot. This team had lost enough before where it got easy to lose.

"There would be something very wrong if that were the case at this point. I like the way the team felt.’’

And now it’s time for the Vols to begin feeling — and playing — another way.

"I saw us play with another gear at Florida, and we need to get that back again,’’ Pearl said. "We’re going to turn the page on the SEC tournament. It is put behind us, and it’s over.’’

Lost Lofton: Pearl said sophomore guard Chris Lofton was particularly hard on himself after his 12-point, 4-of-14 shooting performance.

Lofton told the media: "This is as bad as it gets.’’

Apparently, he didn’t stop there.

"Chris was really down on himself and wanting to throw himself under the bus,’’ Pearl said. "You’ve got to love a kid like that. He’s not looking for excuses.’’

Pearl said Lofton needs to adjust to the extra attention he’s getting from opposing defenses and take his game to another level.

"Chris will get a lot of attention,’’ Pearl said. "The difference Friday was that, for the first time this year, Chris missed an open look.’’

Lost Pearl: Pearl was unaccustomed to an early league tournament exit, as that had happened only once before in his head coaching career.

"Friday night I watched tape, I visited with my team, and I was done,’’ Pearl said. "I was totally lost without work. I didn’t know what to do with myself.’’

Pearl said it’s hard for him to make a conscientious effort to stay loose at this point of the season.

"Part of us getting here was me being relaxed,’’ he said. "But it’s hard to do that when you’re not playing well.’’

Bracketology: The latest ESPN.com projected brackets have UT has a No. 4 seed against Pearl’s former school, Horizon League champion Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in Jacksonville.