KNOXVILLE - Thinking about the Southeastern Conference tournament and his team's potential to land a double bye in it is not of particular interest to Tennessee men's basketball coach Rick Barnes - and it won't be as the Volunteers play their final five regular-season games, beginning tonight at Georgia.
"I don't have any thought about it," Barnes said. "The way I look at the tournament, it's like extra credit. I had to do a lot of that in high school to pass, and college."
Barnes is not looking ahead, but he is looking around the country, and he sees teams comparable to Tennessee getting beat. Purdue, a team the Vols beat early that had been ranked in the top three for several weeks, has lost three straight games.
Ohio State, which surged to No. 8 this week, lost by 23 points Thursday night to unranked Penn State. Last week there were 18 losses by Top 25 teams. Meanwhile, the SEC continues to be a cannibalistic slugfest, and Barnes knows his team is not immune.
"This group here, they're in some uncharted waters right now," Barnes said. "Again, they haven't ever been in a position this late in the year. Last year we were talked about being on the bubble and all that, and when Robert Hubbs went down we didn't handle it very well. These next four or five games are important."
If Tennessee (19-6, 9-4)can avoid pitfalls down the stretch, conference tournament seeding and the need for extra credit will be less significant in light of the NCAA tournament rèsumè the Vols will have built.
An added challenge this time of year, though, is that many teams are playing with house money as if they have nothing to lose, Barnes noted. Today's opponent fits that bill well. Georgia (14-11, 5-8) is in need of a dynamite ending to a disappointing year if it wishes to make the NCAA tournament.
The Bulldogs upset Florida on Wednesday to get it started.
"I realize, and I think our guys understand, this game Saturday will be as hard as any game we've played all year," Barnes said. "Georgia coming off a big win, they're still in position to be a postseason team. They've got to feel good with the way they won it, because they won it the way Georgia wins basketball games. They grinded it out on both ends, made plays when they had to."
Beating the Bulldogs will start with containing SEC leading scorer Yante Maten, who hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final minute of regulation Wednesday to put the game with Florida in overtime.
"He's going to go down as one of the all-time great Georgia players, which is a great compliment," Barnes said. "We know and we have talked about it, starting with our prep yesterday."
Tennessee lost twice by a combined three points to Georgia late last season, including a 59-57 game that ended the Vols' season in the SEC tournament. Their first loss to the Bulldogs was a 76-75 decision that started a stretch of six losses in the final eight games.
"This time of year is important, whether you already think you're in the (NCAA) tournament or whatever you may be, you want to be playing good this time of year, and you want the mindset to be right," Barnes said. "You want everything to be right. This is what you work for.
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.