KNOXVILLE – As soon as Tennessee’s 67-62 defeat of Auburn ended Saturday afternoon inside Thompson-Boling Arena, several Volunteers players raced for the student section, while sixth-year senior forward John Fulkerson helped direct the pep band.
Minutes later in his news conference, Vols coach Rick Barnes was asked if he stops to savor such moments.
“I don’t,” he replied. “I walk off the court. I told them to enjoy this really quick, because we’ve got to go to Georgia on Tuesday night.”
With a Southeastern Conference championship still in the picture.
Tennessee’s downing of the Tigers coupled with Arkansas outlasting Kentucky 75-73 in Fayetteville earlier Saturday has resulted in a bunched quartet with two regular-season games to play. Auburn leads the SEC with a 13-3 mark, while Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee are each 12-4.
If Auburn wins Wednesday at Mississippi State and prevails Saturday against visiting South Carolina, the Tigers would win just their fourth SEC regular-season crown.
“We still control our own destiny,” Tigers freshman forward Jabari Smith said Saturday. “We still have a chance to win a championship. We’re going to move on to the next game and focus on trying to win these next two.”
Auburn enters March on shaky ground despite its sparkling 25-4 overall mark. The Tigers raced out to a 10-0 league record but are just 3-3 in their past six contests, squandering a nine-point lead in the second half of their 63-62 loss at Florida on Feb. 19 and losing an 11-point lead early in the second half Saturday.
If Auburn sweeps this week’s games, two of the four league titles in program history would have come under Bruce Pearl.
“We went on the road, didn’t play very well and lost by five at Tennessee,” Pearl said Saturday. “We didn’t play well at Florida and lost by a possession. We didn’t play great and lost in overtime at Arkansas.
“You can’t push the panic button. We know we can play better.”
If Tennessee wins at Georgia and Auburn loses at Mississippi State, the Vols would host Arkansas on Saturday with a chance to earn at least a share of the SEC championship and also clinch the top seed for the league tournament in Tampa, Florida. Under that scenario, Tennessee would saddle the Razorbacks with a fifth league loss while holding the tiebreaker over Auburn and Kentucky in the case of a three-way tie.
Kentucky split with Tennessee, but the Wildcats went 0-1 against both Auburn and Arkansas, with each of those defeats occurring on the road.
“It’s a lopsided schedule compared to the other teams,” Wildcats coach John Calipari said Saturday. “It just is, but that’s OK. We’re playing for something bigger than a seed or a league championship.
“We’re always playing for bigger than that.”
Tennessee has won 10 SEC regular-season titles, with the most recent in 2018, when the Vols shared the championship with Auburn. The Tigers winning twice this week and the Vols winning twice would result in Tennessee being seeded second in Tampa.
Yet if Auburn loses at least once and the Vols sweep, perhaps Barnes might stick around to experience Saturday’s celebration.
“I’m not one of the best at enjoying winning,” Barnes said. “My mind quickly gets on to what’s next.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.