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KNOXVILLE -- The nearly consensus favorite to win last year's Southeastern Conference Tournament reached the semifinals before bowing out with a last-minute loss marred by one of its worst defensive performances of the season.

The Tennessee men's basketball team considered it an overwhelming disappointment at the time.

Really, though, it was progress.

The Volunteers finally withdrew their claim to fame as the only team never to have advanced to the semifinals of the tournament since the conference expanded to 12 teams in 1992.

Now, a year removed from a 92-91 loss to Arkansas in the semifinals, Tennessee (19-11) will play its SEC Tournament opener at 7:30 p.m. today at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla., looking to go even farther.

The Vols, the SEC East's top seed, will face West No. 4 seed Alabama (17-13), who beat East No. 5 seed Vanderbilt (19-11) in Thursday's opening-round game, 82-75.

"Usually, we always lose in the first round, but we played well down there (last season). We got beat on a last-second shot down there," junior center Wayne Chism said, referring to UT's loss on a turnaround jumper by Arkansas' Steven Hill with 5.3 seconds left that kept the Vols out of the championship game.

"We played our tails off in the tournament, and we're going to do the same thing this year."

With the benefit of a first-round bye for the third time in four years under coach Bruce Pearl, UT will start in the quarterfinals -- just one win away from matching its performance in last year's memorable tournament.

The final two rounds of that four-day event in Atlanta were moved to Georgia Tech's Alexander Memorial Coliseum after a tornado damaged the Georgia Dome during the quarterfinals.

The impromptu relocation made for a unique atmosphere. Crowds for the final two days were sparse, limited by Georgia Tech's relatively small arena.

This year, Tennessee might relish the chance to play in unfamiliar surroundings.

The Vols have dropped five games at home, most recently their regular-season finale Sunday against Alabama. Some of UT's biggest wins, meanwhile, have come on the road -- including pivotal, late-season victories over South Carolina and Florida -- or at neutral sites.

"When you go on the road, you've got a chance to be more focused," said Pearl, who owns a 1-3 record in the SEC Tournament.

"Plus, I think the other thing is the crowd is so against you that you've got to bond together with your team and really concentrate. Sometimes you don't concentrate as much when you play at home. On a neutral site, we'll be fine as far as focus."

It can't hurt that Pearl gave his players the day off Monday in hopes of allowing them to catch their breaths before starting the postseason -- and to shrug off their last-second, 70-67 loss to the Crimson Tide.

"We can't play any more games like (Sunday)," UT junior forward Tyler Smith said, "or we won't be playing much longer."

A tournament field Pearl considers "literally wide-open" because of the league's lack of a dominant team -- and its perceived weakness from top to bottom -- presents an opportunity for the Vols.

But only if they can add to what they started last year.

"There's no one in the field that we can't beat," Pearl said. "But there's nobody in the field that can't beat us. I think that's going to be true for just about anybody."