Finally...

A funny thing happened when I went to check the scoreboard for tonight's Tennessee-Auburn game, which will serve as the only SEC contest this season not to be carried on television. As the ESPN.com college basketball scoreboards default to the Top 25, I spent a second or two scanning the field to see what else was going on nationally...and then I realized that none of it mattered.

The Vols are three days and 40 minutes away from being the number one team in the nation. There's no poll watching, no debating, none of the above. If the Vols can knock off the lone remaining unbeaten in college basketball on their home floor on Saturday night in Memphis, Tennessee will stand alone at the top. And while I realize that college basketball polls mean exactly squat at any time of year, and that it's really a bigger deal that the Vols are now 11-1 in SEC play and precious steps closer to claiming their first outright championship of my lifetime, and that the Vols have been #1 in the RPI for weeks now and are locking on to a number one seed for the dance, which is infinitely more important than anything else...you'll have to forgive me if for the next three days, I really don't care. About anything else.

It's not just that #1 is on the line. It's not just that it's a historic 1 vs. 2 showdown. It's Memphis. And if there's a program in college basketball that respects the University of Tennessee less, I'd love for you to show it to me.

We've taken our beatings from Kentucky but we've also dished out enough to hold our heads up and at least demand respect, especially under Bruce Pearl. And on a national level among the elites, like UCLA and the state of North Carolina, it's not that the Vols are disrespected, we're just not thought of year in and year out. Which is what we're working to rectify.

Memphis knows about us. We share borders and not much else. And even though the Vols dished out an 18 point beat down of Tiger High last season in Knoxville, the dominant feeling I get from West Tennessee is still general disrespect and misplaced elitism. Memphis Basketball is like Georgia Football on steroids, without the SEC to stand on. I hate these guys and I cannot wait for Saturday.

Memphis is very good - I'd love to start disrespecting them for a change, but it'll have to wait til Sunday. 18 point beat down aside, when you look at a starting five of Willie Kemp, Derrick Rose, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Robert Dozier, and Joey Dorsey, it reminds me of what it's felt like to play the Florida Gators the last two season. You don't just need the A+ game from Lofton and the Smiths to win. You need it from every single cog in the wheel. If the Vols disrespect Memphis the way the Tigers disrespect us, we're going to get beat Saturday night.

But make no mistake - even playing in a hostile environment (though you'll see some orange at the FedEx Forum), the Vols are 100% capable of winning this game, and a loss by any margin will be a disappointment. Memphis isn't so much better than us because this year, nobody's so much better than us. Tennessee can beat anybody they face, including undefeated #1 Memphis on their home floor.

This feels like fall. Seriously, it feels like Wednesday night before the Florida game. And I love that. Never would've thought it ever possible...but here we are. Bruce Pearl deserves his own street right about now.

This will be but game one of a brutal four game gauntlet, sandwiched between tonight's big win over Auburn, and the senior day regular season finale against South Carolina on Sunday, March 9. Inbetween are the four biggest games of the season: at Memphis on Saturday night, then a five star trap game on Tuesday night at Vanderbilt, which is only even labeled as a trap game because it falls between the biggest game in the history of the program at Memphis, and then the return bout with our archrivals in Kentucky next Sunday. Vanderbilt, I'm sure you're aware, hung a 40 point spanking on the Cats in Nashville last week, and are a little bitter I'm sure about playing so poorly in Thompson-Boling last month. Kentucky is Kentucky and always will be, and that little home date is followed by a trip to Gainesville two weeks from tonight, to play a Florida team that will be looking to get a resume win, and the Vols are certainly good enough to provide it. Welcome to high stakes, high intensity college basketball. It doesn't get any better than the next two weeks.

Win or lose at Memphis, the Vols can lock up a first round bye in the SEC Tournament with one more conference win. The Vols are now two games up on Mississippi State for the overall title, plus own the tiebreaker, which means the Vols will have a chance to lock up the SEC Championship at home against Kentucky, which would be ideal. This season, and really the last three, have been a living dream...and it ain't over yet...but Saturday night will be special and in a class of its own. We'll win the division, the conference, and go on to Atlanta and then March later on. Right now, it's just Saturday. It's only Memphis.

The Vols are 11-7 all time against the Tigers, and the two teams have split the last two meetings since the series was renewed in 2005-06. John Calipari, who is fast becoming a threat to Rick Pitino as my most hated coach in college basketball, is on record repeatedly as saying he either wants to discontinue the series or move it to Nashville. Many, many folks speculate that Coach Cal doesn't want the Big Orange Nation coming into his talent-rich city and doing anything to establish a stronger recruiting base, even though Calipari is also on record as saying the Tigers are going to get the kids they want to get.

There's animosity from the football series, which the Vols absolutely own and use to keep the basketball series contract alive, that make Memphis fans think that this rivalry is a dual threat - as in, Tennessee wins in football, Memphis wins in basketball. But again, let's be clear - Tennessee owns the all-time series lead 11-7, and all but one of those games have been played since 1988, so it's not old stats skewing the viewpoint. Memphis only thinks they're the best basketball program in the state, though they've got an inferior conference and no National Championships to back up their argument. Like I said, Georgia in football on steroids - they disrespect us with no real reason to. They want to sit at the big boy table and they don't have the rings to get in. And in basketball, neither do the Vols...but if you're a Tennessee fan and you've been taking crap from a Memphis fan, stop it. They've got no ground to stand on, and the imaginary place in their heads where they're better than us can be fully eliminated on Saturday night. I guarantee you Bruce Pearl knows this.

Right now, I'm doing that thing where I'm too excited and filled with righteous anger that I'm typing too fast for my own fingers to keep up. The next two days are going to be straight torture, son. The Vols have never been in a 1 vs. 2 game. But to get the chance to do so against Memphis...this ain't heaven, but it's close.

Bruce Pearl said tonight in the postgame that it's step up time - for himself, for the players, for the fans, for everyone. And he's right. This is uncharted territory and holy ground. And yeah, losing, by 1 or 100, won't mean the end of anything and would be used as education and motivation for later. Being the #1 team in a college basketball poll is only good for recruiting. But right now, none of that matters. Right now, it's three days and 40 minutes from glory, and only Tiger High stands in the way. So much can be made right in one night. I. cannot. wait.

Go Vols