ATLANTA — And so there’s still another frontier left out there for Bruce Pearl to conquer next year.

Tennessee and the SEC basketball tournament remain oil and water. The Vols are a square peg, the tournament a round hole.

For too many years, Tennessee has been a shadowy entity come tournament time: an official participant, but not much of a presence.

"We’re very aware of that,’’ Pearl said Wednesday, on the eve of this year’s event.

"We’d like to stay for a few days. That’s our goal.’’

In two exhilarating seasons as coach, Pearl has achieved near-miracles, addressing virtually every other sad-sack element that has characterized Tennessee men’s basketball.

And yet, this goal still eludes him.

Instead of staying around a few days, the Vols, true to form, stayed around only a couple of hours.

A 76-67 overtime loss to LSU on Thursday night is the latest disappointing chapter in the Vols’ postseason history.

Tennessee remains the only league team that has never reached the semifinals since the 1992 expansion. It’s one thing if Kentucky has a higher SEC tourney profile than you do. It’s another if Auburn does.

"We feel very badly for a lot of reasons,’’ Pearl said Thursday night post-game. "One, we’re trying to add to the history of Tennessee basketball.

"We’re disappointed and we’re real tired of leaving this tournament.

"We feel just terrible about it.’’

As, no doubt, do the Tennessee fans who came to town hoping to get a weekend out of it. The Vols were well represented in the announced crowd of 14,574.

History notwithstanding, this one-and-done was puzzling.

No team in the league had more momentum coming to town than did the Vols, winners of seven of their past eight games.

The Vols, furthermore, were money in the bank — 37-2 — when they lead with five minutes to play under Pearl.

For the record, they led 54-50 with five minutes to play in regulation Thursday, then 57-52 on a Chris Lofton 3-pointer at the 4:43 mark.

Then the walls closed in.

A sensational Lofton tip-in and a favorable charging call on LSU’s Garrett Temple with 7.3 seconds to play got them to overtime.

That bought them a five-minute extension but not a 24-hour one.

LSU’s Glen Davis took control of the paint. Tennessee was spent. And headed home.

Give the Tigers credit. They called the tempo. They defended like their postseason lives are at stake, which they are.

Tennessee’s box score was filled with all kinds of numbers that pointed the way back to I-75 North:

Wayne Chism, 1-for-9; Ramar Smith, 2-of-10; JaJuan Smith 3-of-11.

The Vols live or die at the 3-point line. This night, they died at 22.6 percent.

The silver lining — and it’s significant — is that this stage of March Madness is mere prelude to the bigger one.

Unlike several of its colleagues, Tennessee didn’t have to win a single game this week in order punch its NCAA tournament ticket.

And as long as the Vols win a game or two in the Big Dance, their SEC tournament failure will be forgiven, dismissed as a curious but benign annoyance.

"You hope to take advantage of what you’ve done all season long,’’ said Pearl, "and we weren’t able to do that.’’

Not yet, that is.

Sunday evening, the NCAA tournament bracket will be revealed and by then the Vols won’t be feeling terrible any more.

They just won’t be in Atlanta.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6726 or strange2@knews.com.