Add this to list of lessons learned by the Lady Vols last season: Not all games are created equal.

With SEC play beginning Thursday night against South Carolina (TV: FSN, 7 p.m.), junior Angie Bjorklund knows things will change.

The biggest difference she hopes to see? A little something extra from her teammates.

"We have to have more of a sense of urgency going into the beginning," said Bjorklund, UT's most experienced player. "I realized it more last year than I ever have. Those few losses that we were like, 'Oh, they're in the past.' No. They really catch up to you in the tournament when it comes toward the end."

The end of the season is where things caught up to Tennessee. Coming off back-to-back national titles, the Lady Vols finished 9-5 in SEC play, lost to Auburn in the SEC tournament (where they were the No. 5 seed) and made their earliest exit from the NCAA tournament with a first-round loss to Ball State.

That's the bad news. The good news, says Glory Johnson, is that it's a brand new season.

"We do have a lot to show," she said. "It's a new year this year, and we've corrected a lot of the mistakes we made last year. It's the beginning of a new year. It's a fresh start."

The Lady Vols are undoubtedly hoping for some different results, too.

After New Year's Day last season, the Lady Vols lost seven games. Five of those came against SEC opponents, and two came outside the conference against Oklahoma and Duke, both nationally ranked teams.

With the new SEC schedule this year, Tennessee won't face another non-conference opponent until the NCAA tournament in March. Which means there will be a whole lot of familiar faces - as well as schemes and strategies - for the next two months.

"You're more familiar with the teams," Bjorklund said. "You play them every year. That's a huge factor, that familiarity. And it's competitive. We're all going for the same thing, and that's an SEC championship. I think that you've got three different seasons almost. You're heading into that middle one."

And, says Johnson, the stakes rise now, just like they'll rise again in March when tournament season begins.

"Right now, it's kind of different because we know every game counts twice as much," she said. "We were able to get away with relaxing and not being a 40-minute team, starting off strong and kind of slowing up in the second half or starting off slow in the first half and coming back really strong in the second. We've got to play a 40-minute game and be a 40-minute team.

"Right now's the time we've got to show people we are a team that can play for that long, and we are a team that can be committed to the program."

And committed to a championship.