BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The aesthetics don't matter at this stage of a basketball season. Neither does the manner in which a victory was achieved.

You simply savor your victories, count your blessings and move on.

Tennessee played poorly Friday in beating American in a game that wasn't nearly as one-sided as the 72-57 final score. It played better in outlasting Butler 76-71 in the second round of the NCAA tournament at the BJCC Arena Sunday afternoon.

It played better. It didn't play its best.

Birmingham bottom line: The Vols won two games without playing their best. That's more encouraging than discouraging.

There's a long list of NCAA champions whose tournament run almost skidded off course in the first or second round. They weathered the early threats, then capitalized on their good fortune in the rounds to come.

The Vols hit all sorts of speed bumps in the first two rounds.

Their opponents controlled the tempo in both games. Their leading scorer, Chris Lofton, didn't score in double figures in either game. Their three-man point guard rotation - which on Sunday consisted mainly of J.P. Prince and Ramar Smith with a cameo appearance by former starter Jordan Howell - produced a solid six assists and a scary eight turnovers.

The Vols basically won these two games the way they lost in the SEC tournament: with defense. And their coach was dwelling on the positive, not second-guessing what went wrong.

"Boy, I thought we played pretty well (Sunday)," UT coach Bruce Pearl said. "I really do.

"We turned it over a little bit too much. We had some unforced rushing, but I thought we made a lot of progress."

Most of the progress was on defense, particularly inside, where the Vols looked so vulnerable in losing to Arkansas in the SEC tournament semifinals. UT's second-half perimeter defense against Butler sharpshooter Pete Campbell was another decisive factor in the victory.

Campbell, who made eight of 10 3-point tries in the first round against South Alabama, was 3-for-7 against UT. He only had two 3-point attempts in the second half and missed both.

"We saw him shooting the lights out two days ago," Tyler Smith said. "And our main focus was to make sure to run him off the (3-point) line."

Smith and Wayne Chism were just two of the Vols who took turns hounding Campbell, who had clear shooting against South Alabama.

"We had everybody rotating on him," Chism said. "He was missing because he was taking contested shots."

Butler guard Mike Green, the Horizon League Player of the Year, was missing even more, and he couldn't blame UT for all the misses.

"Tennessee has some athletic guys that contested a lot of shots," said Green, who made only four of 17 shots. "But sometimes, it just don't work your way."

Green repeatedly drove to the basket in the second half. And he repeatedly failed to finish. Once, he even shot an airball only a few feet from the basket.

"Those shots that I've been making all year long,'' Green said. "For one reason or another, they didn't go."

Guard A.J. Graves, Butler's second-leading scorer, was often off-target as well. He made six of 18 field-goal attempts.

"They do a formidable job of being able to contain your guards," Butler coach Brad Stevens said. "Even with their bigs.

"It's a very, very select few (teams) that can do that. And Tennessee is one of them."

There also are only a few teams that can beat Butler without playing their best.

Sports editor John Adams may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.