Want to appreciate just how close we could be to the end of men's college basketball season here in the Tennessee Valley for our hometown University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs and the University of Tennessee Volunteers just up the road in Knoxville?
Consider this: Counting UTC's Sunday afternoon Southern Conference semifinal, both the Mocs and the Vols could be down to as few as two more games before heading off to spring break.
Let the top-seeded Mocs lose to fourth-seeded Wofford at 4 p.m. Sunday in Asheville, North Carolina, and the SoCon regular-season champions will be guaranteed but one more game - probably in the opening round of the National Invitation Tournament.
Let the second-seeded Vols lose their opening game in the Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinals Friday night in Tampa, Florida, and the Big Orange will be guaranteed but one more game, in the NCAA tournament the following week.
A likely scenario for either or both UTC and UT? Probably not. Though the Mocs didn't exactly blow out The Citadel on Saturday, they did win against the ninth-seeded Bulldogs. And that's really all that matters this time of year. Survive and advance, as the late, great Jimmy Valvano once said.
As for Tennessee, the No. 13 Vols led 14th-ranked Arkansas by 21 points (50-29) at halftime Saturday inside Thompson-Boling Arena. Yes, it got a wee bit closer than Big Orange boss Rick Barnes might have liked before winning 78-74 to complete a 16-0 home campaign, but before this weekend, the Hogs had been the league's hottest team.
Which brings us to this point regarding the Vols' chances in March Madness. These guys can win it all. UT has everything it needs to not only reach the Final Four for the first time in program history, it has all the tools it needs to cut down the nets on the final Monday night of the college season inside the New Orleans Superdome.
That's right, Big Orange Nation. Tennessee, once the queen of women's basketball under Pat Head Summitt, just might become the king of the men's game less than a month from now.
AP photo by Wade Payne / Arkansas guard Stanley Umude, right, collides with Tennessee's Santiago Vescovi, center, as they battle for the ball during the first half of Saturday's game in Knoxville.Name a true weakness these Vols have.
You can't. They have a stunningly strong freshman point guard in Memphis native Kennedy Chandler, who bagged five of his six 3-point attempts against the Razorbacks. They have the most deadly 3-point shooter in the league in Santiago Vescovi. And you burn a defender to guard Vescovi wherever he roams at your own peril, because Chandler and fellow freshman point guard Zakai Zeigler are almost unstoppable driving to the basket in one-on-one situations.
You could even make a case that Zeigler is the most complete point guard on the team after adding six assists and five rebounds to his 13 points Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Beyond that, junior Josiah-Jordan James is finally becoming the matchup nightmare Barnes hoped for when he was signed. He's too strong for guards to guard and too quick for most opposing forwards. His growing importance is easily explained in his stat line against the Hogs: 12 points, seven rebounds, two assists and three steals. Every championship-caliber team needs a glue guy, and James is increasingly looking like the perfect player for that role.
And then there's UT's Tasmanian Devil of a Social Security recipient in 73-year-old forward John Fulkerson, who reportedly voted in the 1968 presidential election between Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey.
In truth, Fulky's only been on campus for six years and won't turn 25 until April 29, but his savvy and experience over the past three or four weeks is one very big reason UT's lone loss over its past 10 games came at Arkansas.
And if all that firepower and talent weren't enough for the Vols to make a serious run, they can also throw in intimidating size in 7-footer Uros Plavsic - who played at Hamilton Heights - and freshmen Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (6-10) and Jonas Aidoo (6-11).
Such size inside to protect the rim allows Chandler and Zeigler to be even more aggressive out front in seeking steals, because if they overplay, there's still a pretty tall wall of arms to alter the shots of those driving to the rim.
Perhaps that's why Chandler, who despite being a freshman figures to have played his final game in the Boling Alley before heading off to the NBA, said at the close of the Arkansas win: "Our goal is to play the Monday night game (for the NCAA title). That's what Coach Barnes says all the time. That's my and everybody else on the team's mindset."
The SEC likely has three teams that can realistically make that a goal in regular-season champ Auburn, UT and Kentucky, with the Razorbacks just behind them. And on sheer talent, Auburn should have the shortest odds because of the human block party that is 7-1 Walker Kessler and the likely overall No. 1 pick in the NBA draft in Jabari Smith.
That said, Tennessee topped Auburn last weekend in Knoxville with a resounding second-half performance. Also, when you can lead the No. 14 team in the country by 21 points at halftime, you can win it all.
Of course, if you have one of those nights when nothing falls and the fouls get fishy and the other team is hitting 35-footers just ahead of the shot-clock buzzer, your season - anybody's season - can end abruptly. Just listen to UTC senior guard David Jean-Baptiste discuss the Mocs' wretched 4-for-22 marksmanship from the 3-point line against The Citadel.
"I just think that, as far as shooting, that's the only thing we really can't control," he said. "Some games they go in, some games they don't."
And if they don't go in on the wrong night, you go home for good.
Welcome to March - both the most exciting college sports month of the year and the cruelest.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.