NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee and Auburn seemingly provide nothing but thrilling basketball games these days. The Vols and Tigers are the SEC’s winningest programs in the past decade, and they’ve provided so many great games of all sorts. Rock fights, high-scoring games and everything in between, but bangers only. Auburn annihilated Tennessee a couple of times in the pre-Covid and post-Covid years, but the past seven games in this series have been exciting.

The teams had split their past six meetings heading into Saturday’s SEC Tournament semifinal showdown here at Bridgestone Arena, and Game Seven went to the Vols in a 70-65 game that was compelling from start to finish. Both teams had great moments, and both teams had cringey moments, but the greatness of both teams can make any opponent cringey from time to time, so we’ll afford some grace to two of the most consistent programs in the sport these days.

So many things — wild things, weird things, wild-and-weird things — happened in Saturday’s game. Tennessee led by as many as seven points in the first half, but Auburn battled back to take a one-point lead at the break. Then Vols battled back in front for a brief moment early in the second half, but the Auburn seized the initiative and led by five. Then Tennessee flipped the game on its head and went on a 20-6 run and had a 64-52 lead with less than six minutes left.

Auburn won the SEC regular-season title for a reason, though. These Tigers, a deep team by National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome, do not quit. They overturned a two-score deficit with less than two minutes left and beat Tennessee in January on The Plains, and they looked likely for a much bigger comeback when they surged and the Vols self-destructed during a 10-0 blitzkrieg that brought that quickly trimmed that dozen-point deficit to 64-62 with nearly four minutes left on the clock.

(Photo: Andy Lyons, Getty)

The Tigers then had the ball with a chance to tie of take the lead, and they got the ball to Broome — who else? — and let the clever southpaw go to work. But Tennessee junior forward Felix Okpara walled off Broome, and then he fought for and secured the rebound. Vols senior point guard Zakai Zeigler went wild, congratulating Okpara before the big man passed him the ball, and then continuing to congratulate him while they both ran up the floor to play offense.

Zeigler acted as if Tennessee had just won the game, and he was War Damn Right.

The final three minutes were a physical free-for-all with nearly a handful of replay reviews, including two reviews that overturned bad out-of-bounds calls and gave the ball to Tennessee. Auburn never relented, though, and it had multiple chances to tie or take the lead. But the Vols have had arguably the best defense in the land all season, and they protected their round orange goal-fort with aplomb. The fortress held, and two clutch free throws from senior guard Jahmai Mashack with exactly 14 seconds left provided the two-score cushion that sealed the deal.

So many special things happened in that exciting, neutral-floor showdown.

Or did they?

If you ask most of those who project the NCAA Tournament field, nothing Tennessee did mattered. Not even the tiniest bit. They might as well have emptied their fortress’ chamber pots on the floor.

According to those people, Tennessee was a No. 2 NCAA Tournament seed heading into the day, and the Vols were still a No. 2 NCAA Tournament seed when the day ended. And even if they beat Florida — which would give them a 2-1 advantage over the Gators this season — they’ll still be a No. 2 seed, while the Tigers and Gators are given No. 1 seeds.

If that’ll exact scenario transpires, Tennessee should stop coming to the SEC Tournament unless it’s on the NCAA Tournament bubble heading into the week. The Vols probably would get fined for that, so maybe sending your entire team but playing only your walk-ons would be the more prudent path.

Make no mistake about this, though: Games matter, or they do not matter. There’s no third option on that menu. It’s not a sliding scale. Games matter, or they don’t. If the SEC Tournament does not matter, stop risking the health and future of your team only to line the league’s already-thick pockets.

For a long time, Tennessee had never won the SEC Tournament, and Vol Nation was desperate to end that embarrassingly long streak. It finally ended in 2022, when Tennessee got to the championship game for the third time in four tries and finally turned the trick, rolling past Texas A&M in Tampa.

So, the Vols have been there. They’ve climbed that ladder. They cut that net. They stood on that stage. They bathed in that blue and yellow confetti. They got that trophy and that T-shirt.

Now the focus of arguably the majority of fan base is squarely on the ending of another embarrassing streak. Tennessee, mystifyingly, has never been to a Men’s Final Four. It’s absolutely one of the best programs to never play in a Final Four, and so many programs of lesser regard have been to at least one at some point.

Rick Barnes is a beloved figure across the game of basketball, and this writer couldn’t begin to count the number of people who smile and hug the man or at least shake his hand at arenas across the country. He seems to know everyone in the sport, and the warm feelings between him and a majority of those people is a two-way street. But Barnes is also criticized — not unfairly, it must be said — for the lack of postseason success relative to the consistent success of his programs in regular seasons and conference tournaments. He’s been to one Final Four, which is one more Final Four than the Tennessee basketball program has in its history, but he and the Vols have been thwarted in the first or second weekend of The Big Tournament.

(Photo: Andrew Nelles, The Tennessean)

Last season’s Vols reached the Elite Eight before crashing into a familiar foil — the Purdue Boilermakers — and falling short despite a good fight against a literal giant in Detroit. Last season was arguably the best in program history, but it again fell short of a Final Four, so the Anti-Barnes Brigade again unloaded the full armory at “Regular Season Rick.”

Many Tennessee fans would happily trade nearly anything for a Final Four appearance. We know where that lot stands. Those people might temporarily act happy if Tennessee upsets Florida and wins Sunday’s championship game, but that will only make them more furious if the Vols again stumble before the final weekend.

The perception of one’s own fan base is critical, but Barnes would nonetheless have no hesitation in risking anything in Sunday’s final if the result of the game mattered to the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. That group’s opinion is awfully critical, as well.

But if we’re to believe many of the bracketologists who forecast these things with varying but often impress degrees of success, then Sunday’s game will mean nothing to the committee.

If that’s true, Tennessee should not put a single scholarship player on the floor for a single second in the game. When you have nothing to gain and so much to lose from a fight, you don’t fight. It’s that simple.

We’ve been told all season that this SEC might be the strongest collection of teams to exist in a single conference in college basketball history. The league might get 14 of its 16 teams into the NCAA Tournament, and it will at least surpass the 11 bids handed to the Big East in 2011. This is also the league’s first season with 16 teams, now that Texas and Oklahoma have been poured and stirred into the most competitive stew in college sports.

You would think the results of a neutral-floor, winner-take-all tournament in that kind of situation would matter.

But you might be wrong.

It might not matter at all for any team that didn’t sit on the bubble heading into the week.

What’s really at stake Sunday? Some nice pictures and a T-shirt? Is that how the NCAA plans to potentially honor the victor of a neutral-floor showdown of the best collection of teams in the history of the college game? Those stakes aren’t nearly large enough for Barnes and his team to risk a serious injury that could derail their NCAA Tournament. They’re just not.

This matters, or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, Barnes and Florida coach Todd Golden would be fools to put their scholarship players on this floor for a third time in three days.