Tennessee had just put the finishing touches on its eighth straight win over Georgia and fourth in a row in Athens when Vols coach Bruce Pearl emerged from a concourse tunnel and crossed the Stegeman Coliseum court toward the team's radio position on press row.

Orange-clad Tennessee fans had filled two full seating sections behind the Vols' radio crew and, cued by the Pearl sighting, they launched into a cacophony of cheers. "Bruce, Bruce, Bruce!" naturally morphed into yet another refrain of "Rocky Top" and the party was on.

AP (ENLARGE)

Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl (yeah, the same one who usually wears an orange sports coat) leads a large contigent of Vols fans, who've become a major presence on the road -- and most likely in Atlanta this weekend.

AP (ENLARGE)

Kentucky first-year coach Billy Gillispie is eager to see the 'Big Blue Mist' — as Kentucky fans are called — descend upon the Georgia Dome.

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All the while, at the other end of press row, Georgia coach Dennis Felton struggled to conduct his postgame radio show amid the noise. An engineer frantically fiddled with knobs, trying to drown out the unbridled joy in the background. To no avail.

Welcome to the UT Road Show, circa 2008. It will be on display at the Georgia Dome this week. Or at least that's Pearl's hope.

The Big Orange's domineering presence on the road is no accident. Certainly the winning has help — the Vols are 27-3 — but Pearl has worked hard to cultivate a groupie atmosphere for his team.

"I believe a road following is important," said Pearl, whose No. 4-ranked Vols enter the SEC Tournament as conference champion. "I think it has been one of the keys for the Lady Vols over the years and I think Kentucky as well. We've had great crowds. There were buildings like at Georgia and South Carolina, Vanderbilt certainly, Memphis, where we could hear our folks over everything. We had a presence in those buildings.

"I call [UT fans] witnesses on the road. We have worked hard through student organizations and through tip-off clubs. We help them get buses. I'll get on the radio and I'll ask our fans to travel and support us. It has become something that our fans have responded to."

Pearl is especially hopeful their fans respond this weekend. Tennessee's recent SEC tournament history falls somewhere between bad and awful. The Vols, who get the winner of the South Carolina-LSU game Friday at 1 p.m., haven't won back-to-back games in this event since 1991 and they haven't won the tournament title since 1979.

But this time around they come in as the league's highest-ranked team with an eye on a national No. 1 seed. Pearl's gone out of his way the sell the importance of this weekend's games to his obedient flock.

"We haven't played on Saturday in a long time," said Pearl of the Vols, who get the winner of South Carolina and LSU after a first-round bye. "I can just imagine what I-75 is going to look like Saturday when fans come down to gobble up those tickets and see us play in the semifinal game."

UT fans are answering Pearl's call. According to the Tennessee Alumni Association, about 10,000 live UT grads in the Greater Atlanta area. That group held a reception in which Pearl was the guest of honor Thursday evening at the Marriott Atlanta Marquise and a pep rally is planned at The Omni Hotel on Saturday.

That's right, Saturday. The Vols clearly plan on advancing to the semifinals this year.

"We're coming in full blown and we're excited," said Philip Bonfiglio, a 1975 UT graduate and president of the Atlanta chapter of the UT Alumni Association. "It's a great time to be a Vol. Bruce has brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Some might think he's a little crazy and off the wall but it's all part of his personality. He gets us fired up."

Bonfiglio compares what Pearl is doing to what Ray Mears did for Tennessee basketball back in the 1960s and 1970s.

"We're kind of new at being basketball fans," he said. "I go back to the Ernie [Grunfield] and Bernie [King] days. That was my generation. This is what it was like that back then and that was a lot of years ago. We want to dethrone Kentucky as an SEC powerhouse and I think we're almost there."

Pearl has been impressed with the outpouring for Tennessee basketball but he's not ready to say they've overtaken Kentucky.

"Absolutely not because spring break for people in Kentucky IS the SEC tournament," Pearl said. "That's how Kentucky kids grew up; that's what people in Kentucky do. Our fans, some go to Destin and Mobile and the mountains for spring break. But more and more are starting to come to the SEC tournament."

Kentucky first-year coach Billy Gillispie is eager to see the "Big Blue Mist" — as Kentucky fans are called — descend upon the Georgia Dome.

"It's a fantastic situation you always feel a little bit better because you know you're going to have support no matter where you play," he said. "When you play at home it's tremendous support, as good as there ever has been in the history the game. I've heard so many great things about the conference tournament and the support that Kentucky gets. We're definitely looking forward to that and we're going to try to make a home court advantage out of it if we can."

So don't be surprised to see a lot of blue and a lot of orange at the Dome this weekend, especially if both get to hang around the whole weekend.

"I suspect that if we can advance you will see a lot of orange in that building," Pearl said.