Tennessee's offense a month ago was nearly impossible to watch.

In mid-January, the Vols were 2-3 in conference play and coming off back-to-back embarrassing losses on the road. A 79-67 loss to LSU in Baton Rouge, and a 107-79 loss to Kentucky in Lexington, respectively.

The loss to the Cats particularly highlighted the offensive struggles.

A month later to the day, however, the script flipped. The Vols upset No. 4 Kentucky 76-63, dominating the Cats from start-to-finish.

“We had no chance (at Rupp),” Barnes said after the win on Tuesday. “We know they played great up there. They got out early and ran really hard.

“We knew we were going to have to do a better job matching up, really. We did much more switching tonight obviously with our defense. Offensively, we gave ourselves a chance with not turning the ball over as much as we did up there. Again, there was a lot of good things that happened. Overall, the first half, our defense was what we needed it to be.”

Tennessee actually shot 53% from the field against Kentucky in that first matchup. But it was the 20 turnovers that led to 32 Kentucky points that doomed them. In the second matchup, the Cats scored just seven points off of eight Vol turnovers.

The difference in the two games was Tennessee’s ball movement. It didn’t exist in Lexington, but in Knoxville, the Vols were doing a great job of moving the ball around.

"We've made shots and shot the ball better,” assistant Mike Schwartz said on Friday. “But the coaches and players feel it's because of the ball movement, player movement, and crisp passing of the basketball.

“A couple of things that probably go unnoticed are the post players ability to connect the offense whether that's John Fulkerson, Uros Plavsic, Jonas Aidoo, Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, or Josiah (James) when he plays at the four spot. Those guys do a good job of keeping that offense on the perimeter, flashing out to the perimeter, and keeping the ball moving.”

It hasn’t just been the passes that have led to better ball movement for the Vols. It’s also been how they’ve moved without the ball as well.

“Everyone has been great at moving without the ball, but the one guy we use as an example is Santi (Vescovi),” Schwartz said. “The way Santi cuts and moves without the basketball continually is beneficial for our offense. His movement influences other guys. They watch him in film, and coach uses him as an example. I think our guards are doing a better job of moving without the basketball, we're cutting and moving, and it's been much better for our offense."

Tennessee’s offense has climbed all the way up to No. 28 in KenPom’s offensive efficiency rating. It’s scoring 112.8 points per 100 offensive possessions as a result of the better ball movement. UT is averaging an SEC-best 16.1 assists per game during conference play.

The Vols’ defense has also improved. It’s been a strong suit for much of the season, but of late, it’s really taken off. According to KenPom, they have the fourth best defensive efficiency in the country as they’re allowing just 87.9 points per 100 possessions.

“We were much better defensively (against Kentucky on Tuesday) and much more sound throughout possessions,” Barnes said. “Overall, I think that everyone that came into the game made a major contribution.”

At one point in the first half, the Cats went nearly 11 minutes without making a shot from the field due to the suffocating Vols defense.

“The whole team and the whole staff, everybody takes pride in that,” Schwartz said. “In a game like that when you look back at the way they really hurt us in the first game. Offensively they got anything they wanted, particularly in transition. So to come back and bounce back with a good defensive effort versus an elite offensive team was obviously good for us. The whole team was proud of it."

The biggest reason Tennessee’s defense has developed into one of the best in the country is because of its ability to turn teams over, particularly with steals. Kennedy Chandler, Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi are all in the top nine in the SEC in steals.

"When we look at our defense, there are areas that we know we need to better and that we're constantly looking to improve,” Schwartz said. “We're not satisfied with the field-goal percentage defense that we have in SEC play. Teams are shooting above 40 percent against us, and that's not meeting our goals defensively. We want that (percentage) to be lower.

“But we also didn't realize and could not have predicted that we would be as efficient as we are with our steal percentage and continuing in SEC play to basically force 16 turnovers per game—17 turnovers per game overall on the season. That's an area in which this is the highest we've been over the last four or five years in terms of forcing turnovers. Steals have been a really big part of that.”

Tennessee ranks eighth in the country in both steals per game (9.84) and turnover margin (+4.8).

Chandler’s 2.33 steals per game rank 12th in the country and second nationally among true freshmen. During SEC play, Zeigler (2.54) and Chandler (2.50) rank first and second, respectively, in steals per game. They’ve combined for 18 steals over the last three games.

“It's kind of become a bit of the identity of this team,” Schwartz said. “Being very dynamic with steals—particularly some late-game steals by Zakai and Kennedy. I think it's kind of happened on its own, but they know their job defensively is to be the head of the snake. They've got to provide pressure and make it a little bit of a challenge for the other team to get into their offense. And when the time is right, to provide full-court pressure.

“Now, with that part, you can say that's all effort-based for them, because we can put schemes in and we can tell them this is our expectation, but their effort, tenacity and heart is what has allowed them to be really effective—statistically—coming up with big steals and having a good number of them."

Tennessee’s (19-6, 10-3 SEC) much-improved offense and elite defense will be put to the test once again on Saturday against No. 23 Arkansas (20-6, 9-4 SEC). Tipoff in Fayetteville is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET on ESPN.