Bruce Pearl’s Tuesday message to his Tennessee men’s basketball was short, and it was simple. But it wasn’t soft, and it wasn’t sweet.

Bruce Pearl's face looked something like this throughout Tuesday's practice.

Get. Tougher.

Heading into Wednesday’s 8 p.m. home game against LSU (10-9, 2-2 SEC) — which will bring associate head coach Tony Jones back to the top spot — Pearl said his Vols (12-7, 2-2) have lost the identity that brought the program back from obscurity.

“What do we have to do to become a better basketball team?” Pearl said. “We’ve got to play physically. We’ve got to play with more aggressiveness. What is our identity? What is Tennessee basketball? What has it always been? If we get away from that identity, we get away from who we are, and that’s based on the fact that we play harder than our opponent. And we have not done that enough. But we’re going to get to doing that with consistency.

“That’s the one thing. We may not get this thing turned into any kind of consistent run, but we’re going to consistently play hard and tough.”

And that, quite clearly, hasn’t been the case this season.

In fairness, computers claim UT’s schedule is the nation’s toughest, and the Vols have a healthy No. 17 RPI ranking. They would be in the NCAA tournament if it started today. But despite that schedule, and despite the distractions of an ongoing recruiting investigation, and despite the suspension that has shuffled Pearl on and off the bench, the widely-held view inside and outside the program is that seven losses is too many.

“We know that. We definitely know that,” freshman forward Tobias Harris said. “Coach Pearl explained to that to us today without saying it. I think that’s what we got out of his message. We’re a team that has so much potential, and we’re 12-7.

“But our record doesn’t define us, and we’re going to continue to get better.”

Tobias Harris: "We're a team that has to much potential, and we're 12-7."

Pearl didn’t promise better results, but he guaranteed that these Vols would return to playing with the energy and emotion he’s typically demanded.

“Identity. Identity. Identity. What’s our identity? That’s what’s it’s all about,” Pearl said. “Our identity early in the season, knowing we were playing against the teams we were playing, ...was toughness. Our identity was finding a way to defend and rebound with physicality.

“We have gotten away from that identity. We have got to get back to that identity in order to be successful.”

The coach didn’t blame his players for this predicament, though. But the message was made clear to them Tuesday that they will be coached differently down the stretch in SEC play.

“It’s my job to bring it out,” Pearl said. “It’s my job to demand it. It’s my job to get it. You can put it on the players, but it’s my job to get it out of them. And if I can’t get it out of them, it’s my responsibility. So therefore, this is what’s going to be required — a level of toughness, a level of physicality. That’s what’s going to be demanded and expected.”

“Coach says it’s going to change. That means it’s going to change.”

Several players said they heard Pearl loud and clear.

“He used a firm tone of voice and told us that’s what’s going to have to happen for us to be successful, and for us to win,” sophomore guard Skylar McBee said. “I totally agree with him, and we need to work toward that and do everything we can do to do that. We know what kind of team we can be, and we know how we have to play to be that team.

“It’s about energy. It’s about effort. It’s about playing hard all the time, no matter what. That’s what we’ve got to get back to, and we’ve got to get back to that style of basketball, of being menaces and making other teams not want to play us. We looked pretty good in practice today. Hopefully we’ll take the right steps to doing that.”

Added Harris: “Last year, they had a lot of tough guys, guys like Wayne and Bobby. I think this year we have that toughness, also; it’s just yet to be shown. But it’s going to be shown throughout these next 12 games. We have something to prove to ourselves and to everybody else that’s watching us.”

Contact Wes Rucker at wrucker@247sports.com, www.twitter.com/wesrucker247 or www.facebook.com/wesrucker247.