GAME NOTES: Bruce Pearl makes his return to Knoxville on Saturday when his Auburn Tigers square off against his former team, the Tennessee Volunteers, in an SEC clash at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Pearl spent six years as the head coach at Tennessee before being fired in March of 2011 after the NCAA launched a probe into the program, an investigation that looked into Pearl contacting prospective student-athletes. After serving his three-year show-cause penalty as part of the sanctions, Pearl signed a six-year contract with Auburn last summer.

Tennessee went to the NCAA Tournament each year under Pearl, but the Vols will need to pick it up if they want to go dancing this March.

They sit 4-3 in SEC play after losing back-to-back games to Texas A&M and Arkansas, which pulled out a 69-64 decision on Wednesday. The game featured 14 ties and eight lead changes, and Robert Hubbs III had a chance to pull Tennessee even down the stretch. His 3-pointer, though, missed the mark, and Arkansas hung on for the win.

Hubbs scored 14 points, Josh Richardson netted a team-high 15, and Armani Moore and Kevin Punter chipped in with 12 and 10 points, respectively.

The Volunteers aren't known for flashy offensive numbers this season (64.2 ppg), but instead, rely on gritty defensive play, as the team yields just 62.7 ppg on .413 shooting, while forcing around 14 turnovers per contest. Richardson, a 6-foot-6 senior, leads the team in scoring (15.5 ppg) assists (61) and steals (37). Punter is second in scoring (10.7 ppg). Both guys are shooting better than 40 percent from behind the arc, and have combined for 50 3-pointers to date.

Auburn is not faring any better, as it fell back to .500 with Wednesday's 71-61 home loss to Texas A&M. The Tigers never led and were outscored in the paint, 42-14. They stayed close by making 25 free throws, but ultimately came up short as they fell to 2-5 in league play.

Antoine Mason led Auburn with 16 points, Cinmeon Bowers pitched in with 14 points and eight rebounds, and KT Harrell added 11 points in the club's third straight setback.

Harrell, the leading scorer for the Tigers in three of the last four games, sits atop the list overall with 17.1 ppg thanks to an impressive 43.3 percent shooting on the perimeter. Mason accounts for 14.1 ppg and Bowers posts a double-double with 13.5 points and 11.4 rebounds per game. Bowers, despite notching a dozen double-doubles this season, can be seen as a liability with his abysmal 49.6 percent shooting at the free-throw line. Because of him, the team as a whole is making just 64.9 percent at the stripe.

Besides those three scorers, Auburn has little else to fall back on, as K.C. Ross-Miller is the next highest scorer at 6.2 ppg.

Pearl has never had a team endure a four-game losing streak during his 11 years as a D-I head coach. The Tigers, however, have come up short in all six true road games this season and have dropped seven in a row against the Vols. Pearl may get a mixed reaction from the Tennessee crowd, but he will not walk away with a win.