Tony Vitello keeping focus in the moment, not looking back at accomplishments

With this season included,

has reached the SEC Tournament title game in the three of the past four seasons. After Tennessee’s 6-5 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday, a reporter asked Volunteers head coach Tony Vitello if he can appreciate the program’s recent success.

“Not really,” Vitello said. “There’s been so much emotion poured out there the last two nights, and we’ve kind of finished later at night. Then, you’re preparing for the next day because it comes pretty quick. This was a little quicker turnaround. It will be even quicker tomorrow. It’s a fun game to be a part of.”

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It’s been plenty of fun for Tennessee’s fans, too. Though, it wasn’t always smooth sailing. On Wednesday, Tennessee lost its opening game in the conference tournament to Vanderbilt.

Immediately, the Volunteers’ backs were against the wall. If they lost again, they were eliminated from the tournament. Nonetheless, Tennessee rattled off three straight wins, highlighted by a vengeful victory over Vanderbilt in the semifinals.

Now, Tennessee will square off against LSU in the conference tournament championship. The Volunteers swept the Tigers in their three-game series earlier this season. However, Tennessee will face the challenge of fatigue this time around.

Tony Vitello is not worried about fatigue

Vitello claims exhaustion is no excuse.

“When you get into the postseason there’s good teams and one team wins and the other team doesn’t. So, I think the fatigue thing can be beaten to death a little bit,” Vitello said. “At least, I know from my experience with a couple of the teams that I’ve been a part of, only once can I remember where I think it was really an issue.

“Everybody’s a little tired and everyone’s logged a bunch of innings and stuff like that. We’re blessed to be in the final. I’m sure there’s some teams at home getting a little extra rest, but when next week starts, by then, everybody should be pretty juiced up and pretty fresh, and it will be a matter of how do you do on that given day.”

If Tennessee wins on Sunday, the program will stand alone for the fourth-most SEC Tournament titles. LSU owns the No. 1 spot with 12. No other team has more than seven.

Tennessee and LSU will go head-to-head at 3 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.