The timing seemed a little strange, but Bruce Pearl looked right at home.

He was back in his element.

He had his whistle, he had his team and he had a practice to run.

It didn’t seem to matter that it was the first of August and it was 105 degrees in Stokely Athletic Center.

The University of Tennessee men’s basketball coach spent Wednesday afternoon barking out instructions and showing his usual brand of fire and animation as the Vols officially opened practice for their upcoming European tour.

“We’re going to play every game to win, but I’m not worried about what our record is going to be over there,” Pearl said of the Aug. 8-19 trip to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria.

“I’m going to play a lot of guys and I’m going to try a lot of different things.”

It’s more about building memories for Pearl.

He’s off to a good start.

In his first two seasons, the Vols have two NCAA tournament appearances, including a Sweet 16 run this past season.

Expectations are even greater for a 2007-08 season where UT returns all of its starters with the exception of Dane Bradshaw.

Add to the mix transfers Tyler Smith (Iowa) and J.P. Prince (Arizona), and the Vols are garnering some national championship buzz.

Pearl thinks the trip to Prague, Bratislava and Vienna is the perfect way to lay a foundation for making just such a run and building even better memories.

“The flavor of this is more educational and cultural,” he said. “I’ve done this before — and not like there’s any expectations on me anyway — but it has always helped.

“I’ve always followed up these tours with good seasons. I don’t think there’s any question it will help us, particularly early.”

Pearl’s biggest areas of focus during the “five or six game” swing through Central Europe will be three fold:

- He wants to find out who will step in and replace fan-favorite Bradshaw.

- He wants to tinker with some players in new positions — like Chris Lofton in some time at the point and Duke Crews at small forward in certain situations.

- He wants to experiment with some zone defense in preparation for the 2008-2009 season when the 3-point line is moved back.

Leadership and developing the initial strands of team chemistry are the primary goals.

Transfers Smith and Prince, along with freshmen Cameron Tatum and Brian Williams, won’t be allowed to practice or make the trip to Europe, but it won’t stop Pearl from searching for his new “glue.”

“Dane was a glue guy,” he said. “He was the leader on our team in assists and he got a lot of guys a lot of shots. So we’re going to have to learn how to play without that.

“He was also one of our best communicators, one of our best leaders.”

The Vols will look for some similar leadership when they take on a group of European club teams that take great pride in beating any teams from America.

“When we go over to Europe and they see we’re from the U.S., they’re going to try to take our hearts out and beat us as bad as they can,” Lofton said as he prepares to embark on a possible All-American season.

“Everybody feels like the U.S. is the top in the world in basketball, and when we go over there I know they’re going to try and kill us.”

Bring it on, said the Vols.

“We’re going to enjoy it, but when we get on the court our competitive spirit is going to take over and we’ll be thinking about winning,” guard Jordan Howell said. “I’m sure they think all the Americans are prima donnas and we don’t play hard.

“They’re just busting it trying to kill the Americans at everything we do.”

Rising sophomore Wayne Chism has been spending his spare time scouring the Internet trying to learn about the Vols’ impending trip.

Duke Crews, another sophomore-to-be, is looking forward to proving he can thrive at small forward.

As for Ryan Childress, he can’t wait to get a glimpse of where his future may rest in professional basketball.

“I think the most exciting thing for me and a lot of our players is to go over there and see what it’s like to play overseas,” the junior said. “I think a lot of us have an opportunity when we’re done playing here, that could be a future goal for us.

“We want to get over there and see what it’s like in the different countries, different cultures and play a different brand of basketball. We get to take a little test drive and see if we like it.”

© 2007, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.