Tennessee looked unquestionably like the best team in college basketball, more than worthy of its No. 1 billing three days ago.

The Vols entered the week as the only remaining unbeaten team in the country in the wake of a complete dismantling of a ranked Arkansas team on their home floor in Knoxville. On Tuesday night in Gainesville, they found themselves on the other end of it.

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Where Tennessee dominated in the paint against the Razorbacks, it was lackluster vs. No. 8 Florida. Where Chaz Lanier made basket after basket to spark an early run on his way to a season-high in scoring, he and the rest of the Vols' offense never seriously threatened the Gators' lead.

The result was a 73-43 defeat at Exactech Arena, the most by an undefeated Associated Press No. 1 team since Houston made it all of the way to the Final Four only to have its perfect record dashed by a 32-point loss to UCLA in 1968.

Tennessee's loss didn't end its season, though. There's still plenty to play for only two weeks into league play and two months before the NCAA Tournament. For the Vols (14-1, 1-1 SEC), it was just one of those nights and there are going to be difficult ones for road teams in the best conference in 2025.

"(Florida) beat us any way you want to beat us," Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. "We (have the) opportunity to learn and get better.”

On the opening day of SEC play, home teams went 7-1 with Vanderbilt as the only road victor over LSU.

The Vols rolled at Food City Center and Florida's defense struggled in a 106-100 loss to Kentucky at Rupp Arena--a far cry from the defensive performance the Gators had against Tennessee just over 72 hours later.

“We know the league is good," Barnes said. "It’s historic what happened with our league in the non-league. And I think our teams have gotten better throughout. I think there’s outstanding coaches and players in the league. I don’t think there’s any gimmes. I don’t think there’s any gimmes at home. I don’t think there’s any gimmes on the road. I just think that this league, we built it to that.

But it’s a lot of basketball left to play. And the key is honestly, and I’ve said it, we’re still in the first week of January. If we don’t get better, we’re not going to be any better. We got to get better."

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Key Takeaways: Tennessee loss a fluke or sign of things to come?

The Vols made just 12 shots from the field, going 21.4% for the game. They didn't make their first 3-pointer until the early-going of the second half after going 0-for-14 in the first.

Florida (14-1, 1-1) outscored them in paint, 40-14 and beat them on the boards, 55-38, including 36 defensive rebounds. It seemed like a historically bad night because it was.

The 43 points were the lowest out-put by a Barnes' Tennessee team since he took over the program a decade ago and the 30-point deficit was the most the Vols have lost by in that span.

“(Bad shooting) happens sometimes. And again, that’s OK. But you can’t give up the offensive rebounds that we did," Barnes said. "You can’t. You can’t give that up. But give (Florida) credit. I mean, that’s the mindset. That’s effort. They made great effort. I thought their post guys played well. Did what they, I think, what they set out to do. I think their post guys understand their roles tremendously and how they need to play."

The silver lining for the Vols is that it likely won't have a repeat performance. It was a rare night for a reason and Tennessee has shown it has the potential to defend its SEC title and make another deep postseason run.

It will also get another shot to right some wrongs when it goes back on the road to face Texas (11-4) at Moody Center in Austin on Saturday night (6 p.m. ET, ESPN) only days after the Longhorns 5-point loss to No. 2 Auburn.

“I told our guys first thing I said walking in (the locker room), I said ‘This is good for us. Because now we’re going to learn what we got to do to get better.’ And we got to get better play, obviously, out of our front line. They’ve got to do a better job. I thought they had their way in there on the front line, which I thought was really the difference in the game.”

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