Incentive was on Crews control against Georgia

Tennessee's 6-foot-8 freshman looked at Georgia sophomore Terrance Woodbury and said, "You know what I'm about to do don't you?"

He was about to go off for the first time in almost a month.

Crews was determined to revert to his "old" self. It worked.

He came off the bench and came through with a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) in Tennessee's 82-71 victory against the Bulldogs on Wednesday night.

The UT forward had lots of incentive.

First, he wanted to snap out of a personal mini-funk. Second, he wanted his team to snap out of a mini-SEC funk.

Third, he got a little riled up at some jawing done by 6-8, 250-pound Georgia freshman forward-slash-linebacker Takais Brown.

"He had been doing some talking at the other end of the court," Crews said. "When I got the dunk (with 4:27 to go in the first half to make it 36-25 UT), I went to Woodbury and Brown and said, 'See, I told you.' "

It was a confidence boost for a player who doesn't often let his confidence get rattled.

But Crews had been struggling.

After earning SEC Freshman of the Week honors on Dec. 24, averaging 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in victories against Oklahoma State and Texas, Crews was flying high.

He got his first double-double of the season against Tennessee Tech on Dec. 28, had a career-high 18 points against Mississippi State on Jan. 7 and 10 points in a loss at Vandy.

Then things started to change.

Crews saw his production drop, as well as his minutes, beginning with a humbling loss to Ohio State and freshman behemoth Greg Oden.

Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl admitted he spent a little extra time this week in one-on-one sessions with his players, especially Crews and Jordan Howell.

"I did spend a lot of time with Duke this week," Pearl said. "I can't quite put my finger on it, but he was a little more relaxed tonight.

"I think playing at home helped him."

So did the dunk.

You saw some of the old fire, some of the chest-thumping emotion that's quickly making Crews a crowd favorite at UT.

"I felt good out there tonight," he said. "I had my legs under me and things are starting to swing back my way.

"I went into a little slump and hopefully I can build off this game and get better and better."

Crews hadn't played more than 19 minutes since the loss at Vanderbilt on Jan. 10.

Against the Bulldogs, fellow freshman Wayne Chism fouled out with 6:52 remaining and Crews knew it was go time.

"I knew when he fouled out I had to play solid, get rebounds and help us secure the game," he said. "That's what I did."

Crews paid for it with some "sore ribs" he complained about after the game, but an SEC win made the pain go away in a hurry.

"It's always good to get a win, especially against the No. 2 team in the SEC East," he said. "We're trying to climb the ladder right now and this should give us some momentum going into Saturday at Florida."

Confidence. It's something that usually comes easily to Crews. It's something that may have returned on Wednesday night.

"Confidence is one of the reasons coach Pearl recruited me," he said. "He knew I had confidence in myself.

"I go hard every minute I'm on the court and he said don't shy away from that. He said to keep being aggressive and my game would come around sooner or later."

It was sooner.