The end is becoming a lot more real. It's one loss and your season is over. That puts a little fire in your butt. It's scary, but at the same time it's very exciting.

You can't really hang your head. The games are coming so quick and they all matter.

I'm not going to lie, we sat down at the beginning of the season, and we set a goal for ourselves. That goal was to reach the NCAA Tournament and finish top-five in the SEC.

(The turnovers) were horrific, definitely. But we won. That's the most important point. However we get it done, we get it done. But we know we can't do it again and have the same result.

(Sunday) was amazing. We upset LSU, but in contrast to that victory, there were about 20,000 people in the arena (Sunday) essentially cheering against you. ... It was my first time (beating Tennessee) and only the second time in program history. So you can imagine what that felt like for all of us. We beat two potential (NCAA) No.1 seeds, and we beat Tennessee on their home floor. That's huge. Not a lot of teams can say that.

It's been a remarkable year for us. It hasn't been perfect. But it's at the point now where I wish I had another year so I could make it as positive and as energetic as it has been this year.

It's easy to get fired up for the big-time teams where you're clearly an underdog. We came out flat against teams we were supposed to beat and paid for it. I think we've gotten confidence from our big wins and learned from our ugly losses.

It's going to be a new focus and a new energy from us. In the postseason every game is a championship.

It's also in our favor that Arkansas and Vanderbilt have tougher schedules.

It's the SEC. You can't take a day off and you can't slack off and that shows. Against South Carolina and Auburn (both double-digit losses) we didn't have that same intensity as we did against Tennessee and LSU. You have to come out ready to go on game day. If you don't you're going to lose.