COLUMBUS, Ohio -- In the midst of March Madness, teams have four ways of getting your attention.

One: Score a major upset. See VCU over Duke.

Two: Win on a last-second shot. See VCU over Duke.

Three: Beat Duke. See VCU over Duke.

Four: Score more points than anyone else. See Tennessee over Long Beach State 121-86.

UT fans had more than an NCAA tournament victory to celebrate Friday afternoon. They could rejoice in knowing the Vols had maximized their March Madness moments by producing one of the highest single-game scores in tournament history. With the high-scoring victory, they advanced to this afternoon's second-round game against Virginia.

Sure, it would have been better from a publicity perspective if the Vols had scored 121 points on Duke, the team that so much of Basketball America loves to hate. But the Vols couldn't control that.

Instead, they made the most of what the tournament selection committee gave them. And that should surprise no one who has been following coach Bruce Pearl's program the last two years.

The Vols have played only three tournament games under Pearl. They haven't made it to the Sweet 16, much less the Final Four.

But look what they did in two of the three games. Last year, against Winthrop, they won on a spectacular buzzer basket by Chris Lofton.

A year later, the Vols are turning heads again. They scored more points than any other team in the first round and 35 more than any team scored on the first day of the tournament.

Scoring 121 points in a game doesn't just get the attention of fans. It gets the attention of recruits.

If you're a recruit in Anywhere America, where would you rather take your jump shot: at Wisconsin, which scored 19 points in the first half of its first-round game; or at UT, which was only a 3-pointer short of 19 points in the first four minutes Friday?

"That shows we run up and down and get a lot of shots up," UT freshman Duke Crews said. "That's what a recruit's looking for. I don't think too many recruits want to go to a school that's going to slow the ball down."

Assistant coach Tony Jones, UT's lead recruiter, knows that as well as anyone. That's why he'll probably take the box score from Friday's game on his next recruiting trip. Lofton had 25 points, JaJuan Smith had 24, and Ramar Smith had 22.

"No matter what players say, it's all about numbers," Jones said. "They like to put up offensive numbers.

"We'll be losing Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith in the future. And there will be opportunities for (recruits) to come in and get those kind of numbers and hopefully duplicate the kind of careers those guys had."

Pearl's program doesn't have to score 120 points to get your attention. It doesn't even have to make the tournament.

For example, take Pearl's first UT game on national television. All it did was upset sixth-ranked Texas by 17 points in Austin.

A month later, it upset second-ranked Florida. And the month after that, it upset Florida again -- this time in Gainesville -- on a night when Pearl captivated the television audience by sweating so much, you wondered if he would be conscious to celebrate the victory.

Last season's sweat became this season's paint. Pearl created a national story when he painted himself orange and led cheers for the Lady Vols against No. 1 Duke.

"When you garner that type of publicity, kids hear that," Jones said. "That brings the enthusiasm to another level.

"Some kids that we had trouble getting in touch with, they were suddenly available (after the paint job)."

You can imagine how that has changed conversations between recruits and their friends.

Recruit: I got a call from Tennessee today.

Recruit's friend: Anybody else?

That was the old conversation. Now, it goes something like this:

Recruit: I got a call from Tennessee today.

Recruit's friend: The crazy dude in the orange paint?

Recruit: Crazy like a fox.

Recruit's friend: Didn't they score 100 points in a game?

Recruit: 121.

Recruit's friend: Cool.

Cool and hot at the same time. They sweat; they paint; they score. And they get your attention.

They also make you wonder what's coming next.