KNOXVILLE -- Tennessee history shows a connection between SEC regular-season women's basketball championships and tournament titles.

A direct correlation is a different matter.

The standing count is 12 regular-season trophies and 10 tournament celebrations. The number of clean sweeps by Tennessee, though, is just six.

That's not counting this season's tournament, which begins Thursday at Alltel Arena in Little Rock, Ark.

Top seed Tennessee (26-3, 14-0 SEC) opens Friday against the Auburn-Kentucky first-round winner.

Despite a six-year run of regular-season league championships, the Lady Vols are on a two-year tournament slide. They suffered upset losses each time in the semifinals.

Small wonder then why senior forward Gwen Jackson expressed a sense of urgency about this year's event.

"We're on a mission,'' she said. "We know what we want to do.''

Beyond stopping the slide, the mission is limited in its scope. It's not that the Lady Vols aren't ambitious. There merely isn't much left to accomplish.

The Lady Vols already are assured of a spot in the Mideast Regional, which they are hosting. Their No. 1 seed status for the upcoming NCAA Tournament still might be vulnerable, but that's debatable.

The rest of the tournament field is not so fortunate. The other teams are playing for everything from seeding to their postseason existence. A victory over Tennessee would be a great entry on the season's log.

While speaking for UT, Jackson could've been speaking for the opposition in saying, "You can't worry about how it was in the regular season.''

In advancing their concerns, the Lady Vols will concentrate on prevention.

The 23 turnovers against Kentucky on Sunday need to be reduced. The Lady Vols, though, have reached 20 turnovers just two other times since committing a season-high 28 against Southern California on Dec. 14.

"The one thing this team has demonstrated of late is poise and execution,'' UT coach Pat Summitt said.

Defense is a bigger concern, especially considering UT's recent tournament trouble.

Two seasons ago, Vanderbilt's Chantelle Anderson and Ashley McElhiney combined for 53 points in a 77-74 victory at the tournament in Memphis.

Last season, Tennessee couldn't stop LSU's motion offense, which helped produce an 81-80 victory in Nashville.

In the final two regular-season games, the Lady Vols were ravaged by a pair of centers. Vanderbilt's Anderson struck again Thursday, this time for 35 points. Kentucky's SeSe Helm followed up with 25 on Sunday.

Summitt compared Tennessee's defense against Kentucky to water and said, "Certainly we can't play like this and attain the goals we've set.''

Tennessee's post players had been given some leeway about either fronting an opposing center or playing behind her. Expect the strategy to be tightened in Little Rock. Summitt thought Jackson did a better job of denying Helm the basketball in the second half.

"We have to be mindful of the breakdowns in the last few games; it's correctable,'' Summitt said. "It's not only effort, it's playing smart.''