ATHENS, Ga. -- Four days ago Tennessee rose to the occasion in a pressure filled situation and took care of business against No. 8 Florida, a win that in the eyes of most put the Vols in control of their destiny in regards to the NCAA tournament. Today the Vols likely lost that control with a 78-68 loss to Georgia.

That's not to say that Tennessee's quest for an NCAA bid is dead in the water, but there's no question that the task certainly got a lot harder with today's outcome.

The loss to the Bulldogs isn't off the charts in terms of being a 'bad loss,' though with their RPI of 142 coming into today, it certainly wasn't a 'good loss.'

How bad it hurts the Vols remains to be seen but the feeling on Saturday was that it was a real blow. It's abundantly safe to say that Tennessee absolutely has to close the regular season with wins at Auburn on Wednesday and at home against Missouri next Saturday to have any hope of grabbing a spot in the field. It's also likely that after today, they'll have to make some noise in Nashville in SEC Tourney play to get over the hump.

Typically, after the game, Counzo Martin wasn't given to speculating heavily on how badly his team's chances were damaged and what they needed to do in order to compensate for today's loss.

"It's one game at a time, that doesn't change, that's the most important thing and that's how we take things," Martin said of his approach to the regular season's final week..


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