Strange: Road work still needed by Vols

Anyone want to take a shot at the lesson to be drawn from South Carolina's 81-64 cakewalk over Tennessee?

Perhaps that you should never underestimate the motivation of going for an NIT three-peat.

Maybe. Who knows what gave South Carolina the wherewithal Saturday to get off the mat and play its best SEC game of a season long since gone down the tubes.

But here's another possibility and I like this one better:

Tennessee still doesn't have the maturity or toughness to do the hard work it takes to win on the road.

The real surprise is that the team that gave the lesser effort was the one with more on the line.

The Vols came into the Colonial Center with the wind at their backs. They had won three consecutive games (all at home); South Carolina had lost its last five.

Wins over Top 25 rivals Vanderbilt and Kentucky had lifted the Vols to the very brink of locking up an NCAA tournament at-large bid.

At 18-9 and 6-6 in SEC, they probably will still get there. But they better hope that on this day, the tournament selection committee was focused on Applachaian State-Wichita, Valparaiso-Western Michigan and all the other designated "Bracket Buster" match-ups.

Because the team in orange Saturday looked nothing like an NCAA tournament team.

It was, in short, UT's worst performance of the Bruce Pearl Era.

"We didn't play well at all,'' said Pearl, who spent a good 30 minutes with his team behind closed doors before addressing the media.

Back in the friendly confines of Thompson-Boling Arena after a Thursday practice, Pearl laid out a recipe for what good teams do on the road.

They play defense. They rebound. They make free throws. They keep their poise and don't get rattled by adversity.

The Vols batted .500 against Carolina. They won the rebound battle. They hit their free throws.

They didn't keep their poise -- Duke Crews, Wayne Chism and Pearl were all hit with technical fouls. That's three this year for Chism.

The deal-breaker was the horrid defense. Chalk up another 40 minutes of evidence as to why Tennessee still hasn't won an SEC road game.

South Carolina is a bad offensive team. This day, though, the Gamecocks hit their first five shots, 10 of their first 15.

After a lull late in the first half, they shot 61.5 percent the second half.

Bryce Sheldon -- he's not on the Wooden Award watchlist -- made four 3-pointers. Someone named Brandis Raley-Ross outplayed all of UT's heralded freshmen.

"We just had no energy,'' said Pearl.

"When you lose a game like this, put it on me, too. Put it on the head coach.

"I did not do a good job of preparing my team. I didn't do a good job of coaching the game. I didn't do a good job of making adjustments.''

Bad timing, that. This was low-hanging fruit there for the picking.

The arena was maybe a third filled and included a fair number of orange people. The Gamecocks are one of the few SEC teams that doesn't physically overmatch the Vols.

"Nobody overlooked South Carolina,'' said UT senior Dane Bradshaw, "but it's a game we feel like we should have won.

"You just have to take advantage of situations.''

Let's survey which of the SEC's NCAA-bubble boys took advantage of situations Saturday.

Vanderbilt knocked off No. 1 Florida. Alabama beat Kentucky. Georgia handled Auburn.

Tennessee's day, however, was wasted.

"There were teams all over the country today playing for their lives,'' said Pearl, "and we weren't one of them.''