Tennessee has had little time to sulk on a surprising home loss to South Carolina this week.

The fifth-ranked Vols, who looked uncharacteristic on both ends of the floor in its 63-59 defeat, shift their focus to a critical road clash with heavy SEC title implications against No. 10 Kentucky at Rupp Arena on Saturday (ESPN, 8:30 p.m. ET).

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Tennessee (15-5, 5-2 SEC) lost both of its regular season meetings to Kentucky a year ago, including a double-digit loss in its last visit to Lexington, but return more offensive firepower with transfer guard Dalton Knecht pacing the team with 20.1 points per game.

Kentucky, which dropped its last game at home to an unranked Florida team in overtime, also features one of the top offenses in the league, averaging 88.7 points and more than 40% from three-point range.

Here is everything Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said about facing Kentucky.

"They're very explosive and can give it to you from all different levels and all different ways. Great speed. A team that can really go on big runs against you. I think (Kentucky head coach John Calipari) is getting more balance all the way around. But, they're a really, really explosive basketball team. They obviously present problems. He's always had a team that could present problems. We've always talked about transition being a big key playing against Kentucky because of how fast they can get down the floor and get in the open court and try to play in space. Also, transition defense is important, obviously, knowing that they've got guys that can get space--and they don't need space. They've got some guys that can play off the bounce but can really go up and make some really difficult shots."

"The last two teams we played, we played against teams that are going to play more slower, lower possession game. This game, I don't think it will be a lower (possession) game because we're going to do what we do and they're going to do what they do. With that in mind, I think it will be a high level, high tempo game."

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee coach Rick Barnes previews Kentucky

"Well, one, they can shoot the ball. I would say the same thing about our guys. You want to recruit guys that can put the ball in the basket and you hope that they can work hard to get themselves set up against good defenses that are trying to take it away from them. But the fact is, I've always thought (Calipari's) team is one that looks to attack early and I think that this team is probably like that and maybe quicker. He's got guys that can shoot and he's telling them to shoot it."

"I think it's obvious, we pointed out the things that we didn't do well. And again, I've told you guys before, I could talk about what we didn't do but it sounds like sometimes you're taking away from the team that won the game and I don't ever want to do that because we had just as much of a chance to win the game as (South Carolina). They did what they had to do and we didn't. But you look at what you didn't do and honestly, it goes back to things that we've talked about all year: can we be consistent? What can we count on every single night? Whether it's ball screen coverage, guys wanting to take chances when they shouldn't and just not being sound discipline-wise. Like I told (the team) yesterday, as a coaching staff, it's our job to teach them basketball and it's their job to learn it. We shouldn't be talking about some things that we've been talking about for two months now."

"If you really think about the game, and I'll tell you exactly how I explained it to them: You start the game missing layups--I said, 'Could you imagine it's like the first play of the Super Bowl, a running back comes down and fumbles the ball. And then, you have three fumbles, so you come back and you try to throw three-straight Hail Mary's.' And the first three 3-pointers we took were all good, if we had made those shots that we needed to make. So the teaching point to them was, at some point in time you've got to realize the flow of them game, what's going on, what we need to do. Because we want guys to take shots. I mean, we've talked about that a lot. When you start digging yourself in a hole, then you're down 7-0, whatever it maybe. Then you say, 'OK, we need to get somewhere.' I told Dalton (Thursday), the first three he took would be a three that you take, but being down 7-0 right there, he needed to put pressure on the basket. That's part of the learning process, obviously, but we don't want to lose our aggression. If you're missing 10 shots at the rim and don't do a good job at the free throw line, that puts you in for a long night and you hope you can find a way to pull it out but we weren't able to."

WATCH ON VOLREPORT: Tennessee guard Jahmai Mashack previews Kentucky

"We talk about all of that with them. I just want us to be a confident team that I know that we can be. You go back, whether you're talking about Josiah (James) or Santi (Vescovi) or Jordan (Gainey) or anybody. I want us to do what we practice. We think if we do what we practice--there's going to be no undefeated teams in college basketball. I was watching a game last night. Wisconsin and Nebraska and (Wisconsin) had won a 120-straight games when they had a 15-point lead. Last night, all at once--I've known (Nebraska head coach) Fred Hoiberg a long time--his team started making some shots and as a coach you just sit back and think, 'One of those nights.' Because they made some really tough shots and it happens to everybody. What you hope is that at the right time you keep building and it's all about getting better and hoping that we can be the best team that we can be when it counts most."

"I don't know if you can slow any good scorer down. You've just got to hope that he's going to have to take more shots than he needs to get what he normally gets. Guys that can really score the ball, you've got to make them work as hard as you can to make them earn points knowing that you're averaging 20 points a night. I mean, that's tough to guard. But, you've just got to make (Reeves) work for every one of them and hope that he's got to take more shots to get to that number."

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