By Jimmy Hyams

The Tennessee men’s basketball team vowed during the offseason to become tougher, according to associate head coach Rob Lanier.

For much of this surprisingly successful season, that has been the case.

But it wasn’t against Villanova and Auburn and Alabama and Georgia — with losses by 9, 10, 28 and 11 points.

The defeat at Georgia is of particular concern because Rick Barnes and his staff and none of the current Vols have beaten the Bulldogs in five tries. And Georgia hasn’t exactly been a Kentucky clone.

“We felt like they were the tougher team,’’ Lanier said of Georgia’s 73-62 victory in Athens Feb. 17.

So there is a score to settle.

Not just that, but an SEC Championship is on the line. The Vols will either tie or win the regular-season title outright with a triumph over Georgia on Saturday (6 p.m.) at sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena.

Last year, Georgia beat UT in the regular season in Knoxville 76-75, then again in the SEC tournament 59-57.

“They’ve been tougher than us,’’ Lanier said. “They’ve been better than us. Sometimes matchups play out that way.’’

This time, Tennessee has a lot at stake. The Vols have won just six SEC regular-season championships, only two outright (1067, 2008). Georgia (16-13) is out of NCAA tournament consideration so the Bulldogs will try to play spoiler.

“Mentally, we’re going to have to exhibit a level of toughness,’’ Lanier said. “And physically, we’re going to have to send a message to them that it’s over. You don’t have our number.

“I don’t like shaking people’s hands after the game and they think they’ve got my number. I don’t like it. I don’t like the feeling. I know coach (Rick Barnes) doesn’t like that feeling. And you don’t want your players to ever be comfortable with that sort of relationship with anybody.’’

Tennessee is 22-7, 12-5 in the SEC – a far cry from the No.13 league projection by SEC media. The Vols are ranked in the top 20, have an NCAA RPI of 8 and have a strength of schedule that has been ranked in the top 10 by several services.

So capturing the SEC outright or sharing it with Auburn would be quite a feat. UT will know whether an outright crown is possible since Auburn plays South Carolina at 3:30 Saturday.

“If we take care of business,’’ Lanier said, “we’ll have a championship, at least a share of one.

Lanier said there is a “message we want to send to our opponent on Saturday – that on our home court, in our last game of the regular season, in front of our fans, you’re not going to come in here and physically beat us. It’s not going to happen.

“So that’s our challenge. It’s a great opportunity. These guys have earned it and we’re proud of them, but we’ve got to take care of business on Saturday. ’’

Learning Barnes’ Language: Freshman Yves Pons from France is getting more playing time of late and he had his best outing of the season Tuesday at Mississippi State.

“He’s starting to figure it out,’’ Lanier said. “He’s learning a new language. He’s learning our basketball terminology.

“He’s learning Coach Barnes’ accent. It’s one thing to learn English. It’s another thing to understand Coach.’’

Keys to Improving: Lanier is confident UT can count or Admiral Schofield and Grant Williams to be productive.

But the keys to the team’s improvement center around Jordan Bone, Kyle Alexander, Derrick Walker and Pons, Lanier said.

“If those four guys continue to take steps and (Schofield and Williams) keep doing what they’ve been doing, we can really improve down the stretch,’’ Lanier said.

Sponsored by Big Kahuna Wings: The wings that changed it all