Perhaps it will disappear from memory like so many other basketball skirmishes that don't escalate into anything larger.
Or perhaps it will be a symbolic moment to Tennessee's season.
With 12:41 remaining in this past Saturday night's top-10 showdown between the Volunteers and Kentucky inside Rupp Arena, a heated exchange occurred between Tennessee's 6-foot-8, 250-pound sophomore forward Tobe Awaka and 7-1, 226-pound freshman forward Aaron Bradshaw of the Wildcats. Each player was assessed a technical foul after being separated.
"We've kind of been challenging Tobe to be that enforcer that we know he can be," Vols fifth-year senior guard Josiah-Jordan James said minutes after the game. "That play really set it off for us. He has our back, and if Tobe has your back, then you can win World War III with him on your side.
"It shows that we're not going to back down from anybody."
Tennessee was leading 65-53 at the time, and the Vols would extend their lead within the next three minutes to their largest of the evening at 76-60 on their way to an eventual 103-92 triumph. It was Tennessee's third win in its past five trips to Lexington, and it gave Vols coach Rick Barnes his fourth win in Rupp, which matched the program's victory total there from 1976-2015.
Awaka, an unheralded three-star signee out of Hyde Park, New York, met with the media on Tuesday afternoon for the first time since the incident.
"I just thought it was competitors being competitors," Awaka said. "It definitely gave us a little bit of a spark, but from then on, I knew that I had to do my job and what I could to help my team win."
The Vols improved to 16-5 overall and to 6-2 in Southeastern Conference play with Saturday's victory, and they will reach the midway mark of league play Wednesday night by hosting LSU (12-9, 4-4). The game will be televised at 7 by the SEC Network.
Awaka had four points and six rebounds in 10 minutes in Lexington, a stat line that didn't divert from his season averages of 4.7 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. He also picked up four fouls, which lines up with a lot of his previous performances as well, having fouled out of losses to Purdue and Mississippi State and having also picked up four fouls against Illinois, N.C. State and Florida.
"It's been a tough situation, honestly," Awaka said. "I just have to try to play smarter. Sometimes it's been ticky-tack fouls, and sometimes it's me being overzealous. I just have to put myself in a position where the ref doesn't have to make the call, because more times than not he's going to make it."
Barnes said Tuesday that Awaka didn't do anything wrong during the confrontation with Bradshaw, and he was asked after the game whether he had witnessed that side of Awaka before.
"Oh, I've seen that intensity from Tobe," Barnes said. "There is no doubt that he's got a streak in him. Tobe is tough, and he's so young to the game still, but he's going to go rebound and be physical and compete.
"That happens when two teams are battling and playing hard. It was a loose ball. You go get it. It's part of it, but I've seen him like that a few times."
When discussing the incident again Tuesday, Barnes said of Awaka, "I appreciate that personality. We need to see it more."
'A great answer'
Cameron Carr, a 6-5, 175-pound freshman guard from Eden Prarie, Minnesota, has played 33 minutes all season for the Vols.
He has only played four minutes in conference contests, with three of them taking place Saturday night, when he had a rebound and dished out an assist on a James dunk with 3:36 remaining before halftime.
"He had been asking what he needed to do to play, and we kept talking about defense, because we know how good of an offensive player he is," Barnes said Tuesday. "In the game at North Carolina, he went in and took as quick of a shot as you could. The day of the Kentucky game, I looked at him and said, 'Cam, if I put you in this game, what would you do?'
"He said, 'Coach, I would give us an extra possession.' I said, 'That's a great answer.' I told the coaches that if we got a chance that we were going to get him in there. He went in and did exactly what he said he would do."
Odds and ends
Tennessee holds a 67-50 series edge against LSU, which includes a 32-18 mark in Knoxville. ... LSU's four SEC wins already doubles last year's total, when the Tigers went 2-16 in league play. ... The Vols in Rupp Arena eclipsed 100 points in an SEC road game for the first time since Feb. 11, 1989, when they lost 122-106 at LSU in a shootout where Tigers' freshman guard Chris Jackson scored 50 points.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.