Tennessee manhandled a good Mississippi State team 71-54 without ever really getting it going offensively. Just more mounting evidence that the Vols are morphing into a nasty defensive team capable of completely taking opponents out of their offensive comfort zone.

Tennessee rolled the Bulldogs Tuesday night despite shooting just 42% from the field and committing 15 turnovers. All because of its defense.

That’s potentially bad news for upcoming opponents and the SEC tournament field.

Tennessee has proven all season long that its arguably the top offensive team in the conference and one of the most efficient in the country on that end of the floor.

That’s in stark contrast to a year ago when the Vols were fairly pedestrian on offense but one of the toughest defensive teams in the country, routinely throttling opponents.

It’s not like the Vols have been bad on defense this season, not at all, it’s just that they weren’t meeting the lofty standard they set for themselves a year ago when they road a stingy defense to a completely unexpected SEC title and a 26 win season.

Rick Barnes talked about the difference in styles on both ends of the court going back to December, sharing his take that he thought the vast improvement in offense (the Vols are scoring right at nine more points per game this year) had led to his team losing some of its edge and toughness on the defensive end of the court.

Consider, from Dec. 14 through Feb. 13, a span of two months, the Vols won 14 of 16 games by at least 10 points while averaging 86 points per game.

It’s hard for a team to play defense like their lives depend on it when you’re rolling like that, when you haven’t been pushed, but things changed dramatically in the face of an 86-69 beat down at Kentucky on Feb. 16.

On that night, the shots weren’t falling for the Vols and Kentucky scorched the nets to the tune of 56% shooting, the highest percentage for any opponent this year.

It was time to take a look in the mirror, and the Vols didn’t like what they saw.

“I think what happened in Lexington really humbled us,” Admiral Schofield said after leading the Vols with 18 points in his final home game. “I think that was the start of us really locking in, understanding what we needed to do defensively to hold teams down so we could really play freely on the offensive end.

“I think it definitely started at Ole Miss, we did a good job, you’ve got to credit them for how they played and how the game went, but our intensity really started in the Ole Miss game, carried over into the Kentucky game. We had some extra motivation to finish that one the way we did. Tonight we carried it over and this is the time of year that if you want to be a championship team you’ve got to play championship style basketball. I thought we did that for most of the night on the defensive end.”

Consider what the Vols have done in the five games since that loss at Lexington. Four of the five opponents they’ve faced have shot 40% or less from the field. Only Ole Miss managed to top that number, and then just barely, at 41%.

Three of those five opponents; Vanderbilt (46 points), Kentucky (52) and Mississippi State (54) had their lowest SEC point totals of the season against Tennessee, and for the ‘Cats and the ‘Dores it was the lowest total period.

That all speaks to a veteran team that’s locked in on defense, that looks like it’s back to playing with the kind of commitment and intensity on that end of the floor that’s necessary to dominate quality opponents.

The attention to detail, the ability to follow the scouting report has particularly shown up in what Tennessee has done to the opponents’ best players in the last two games.

Kentucky’s P.J. Washington was just 2-of6 for the field against Tennessee and scored 13 points on Saturday after mauling the Vols for 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting in Lexington. The ‘Cats two best perimeter players; Tyler Herro and Keldon Johnson, were held to a combined 4-for-20 shooting day and managed just 13 points between them.

Tuesday, the SEC’s second leading scorer, Quindary Weatherspoon (18.5 ppg), finished with a mere seven points on 3-of-12 shooting. The Bulldogs’ top player incredibly had more turnovers (8) than points.

The ability to take other teams out of their comfort zone, to take their best payers and simply render them ineffective, is the mark of a great defensive team.

The Vols were just that a year ago, and it looks like they may have rediscovered that identity just in time for the postseason.

“I think our guys truly understand that’s what we built our program on. We got away from it and we needed to get back to it. I think they’ve really realized that,” Rick Barnes said after watching his team hold Mississippi State to 21 points below its season scoring average. “You all often ask me about experience, guys who have played together, have been in big games, I know they believe that it works.”

One of the more surprising things about Tennessee’s recent run of defensive mastery is that it’s come during a stretch where Kyle Alexander has almost constantly battled foul trouble.

Barnes always refers to the 6-foot-10 senior as the team’s defensive anchor, he’s their one true rim protector and a player who can erase teammates mistakes with his quick feet and ability to contest shots.

He didn’t get into foul trouble Tuesday and it was easy to see what kind of impact he can have on Tennessee’s defensive aptitude when he’s able to play without the specter of picking up another foul and heading to the bench hanging over him.

He was aggressive and effective on his way to collecting 10 rebounds, blocking four shots, contesting numerous others and helping to hold Mississippi State to a miserable 33% shooting night from the field.

“I was definitely smart about it today. I didn’t go for any offensive rebounds I didn’t think I could get, I tried not do anything I thought would lead to a foul but I tried to stay aggressive,” Alexander said of his approach tonight and being able to stay on the floor for more than 20 (25) minutes for just the second time in the Vols’ last seven games.

“I’ve had a rough couple of weeks. I’m just happy to have been able to play, be a part of this win, a part of this success and finish the season off (at home) great like we did.”

Depending on what happens between LSU and Florida Wednesday the Vols could need to win at Auburn on Saturday to clinch at least a share of the SEC regular season title. That would be nice, no doubt. It would be the first time this program has won or shared back-to-back SEC championships in its history.

Regardless of how that plays out though this team now looks capable of accomplishing far more than hanging a banner for a regular season championship.

Because of the way they’re defending now—combined with what they’ve now proven they can do on offense—and what’s happened in the last two weeks, they’re arguably heading to Nashville as the favorites to win the SEC Tournament regardless of seeding.

Beyond that, they’re playing the kind of defense at the moment that looks capable of carrying them further than any Tennessee team has ever gone in March.

It took the better part of four months, but as Barnes said, this group looks like it’s figured out what this program has been built on.