Tennessee avoided losing to Ohio State for the third time in two seasons with a narrow 74-69 win at Thompson-Boling Arena Saturday afternoon.

The Vol's mantra the entire offseason was "Remember the Alamo," after Ohio State stormed back to beat Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament in San Antonio. 

Before the game, however, Head Coach Bruce Pearl told his team not to worry about that and instead focus on this year's team. 

With the win over the Buckeyes, Tennessee took a step towards forgetting the Alamo and giving this year's squad it's own identity.

Tennessee's incredible depth provided 26 bench points compared to a very troubling zero for Ohio State.  The Vols also posted an impressive 20 points off turnovers. 

Having said that, the Vols are still showing some of the same troubling signs that eliminated them from championship contention last year, namely a lack of discipline and atrocious free throw shooting.

Just take the very end of the game as an example.

With just 22 seconds left, and the Vols leading by three points, Tyler Smith went Brett Favre on us and threw a deep ball to Wayne Chism that wasn't even close while trying to inbound the ball.

All the Vols needed to do was get the ball into a decent free throw shooter's hands, and Ohio State would have almost surely fouled.

These are the kind of plays that make me scratch my head at times.

Have the Vols really matured over last year when shot selection, free throw shooting and overall discipline seemed to be their biggest issues?

Free throw shooting and discipline are very closely intertwined in my mind, and Vols might need to take it more seriously. They shot 47 percent from the line today compared to Ohio State's 77 percent.

Coach Pearl says he would like his teams to be the best from the line in the conference. It's one of the few things the miracle working coach has not been able to achieve, as they rank eighth so far this year.

The Vols are more experienced, more talented and deeper than this year's Ohio State team, and the game should not have been in jeopardy in the final seconds as it was.

Last year, Ohio State beat the Vols by a combined three points in two games that the Vols probably feel they should have won. They almost let it happen again this year as they repeatedly let the Ohio State back into the game.

Impressive runs like their 23-5 burst in the second half have become routine for the Vols, yet Ohio State was still capable of winning in the final seconds.

Pearl has his squad playing as fast and as hard as anyone in the nation. 

If he can get them to do that with more discipline on a consistent basis, the Vols will be back in Alamo-- this time for the Final Four.