Prior to Tuesday night's exhibition basketball game against Division II LeMoyne-Owen College, Tennessee men's coach Bruce Pearl actually wanted his team to be selfish.

But the night before the 126-66 shackling of the Magicians, Pearl changed his tune.

"Before (the exhibition game) was the first time I had told the team it's time to become a team," Pearl said after an hour and a half practice Wednesday at Thompson-Boling Arena. "It was the first day since last season ended that I had told our team to be unselfish.

"I wanted them to be selfish all summer and work on their game, get their shot down and get ready for the season. But last night I said, 'OK it's time to do what's best for the team.' And I think they did that."

The Vols responded with seven players in double figures led by junior JaJuan Smith's 22 points. The Vols hit their first 18 shots en route to an 80.6 shooting percentage in the first half.

In the second half, however, UT cooled to 57.6 percent -- 60 percent from the free-throw line for the game -- and just slightly outrebounded (42-36) undersized LeMoyne-Owen.

Second-half woes or not, Pearl was still upbeat about his team's performance.

"Any time you make your first 18 shots, it's hard to complain. I don't think that's ever happened," Pearl said. "I thought we executed our stuff well, but you have to take everything with a grain of salt because the competition was just not challenging."

Junior guard Jordan Howell, who practiced for the first time Wednesday after being out three weeks with a broken thumb, was all smiles watching the young Vols from the sideline.

"We've got some talented players, and all the freshmen give us something different," Howell said. "The challenge is going to be getting them (the freshmen) up every night because we rely on those guys."

UT will likely start two freshmen when it the opens season Nov. 10 at home against Middle Tennessee State, but just who those freshmen will be is uncertain.

Pearl doesn't know how much Howell will play Friday night in UT's final exhibition game at home against Tusculum College. But once Howell's back at full strength, Pearl has three point guards -- Howell and freshmen Ramar Smith and Marques Johnson -- and a viable 11-man rotation to manage.

"We've got a lot of good competition at positions right now," Pearl said. "We've got 10 guys, and when Jordan gets back we've got 11. There is still good competition."

With not one player standing taller than 6-foot-9, Howell knows the Vols' primary strength is their depth.

"It (depth) is huge for us," Howell said. "We're going to be able to press a lot more and push our opponent to they're tired and we're still fresh and ready to go. Our depth in the back court is going to give us a huge advantage against other teams."