KNOXVILLE — College basketball’s two majors polls are set in stone for seven days.

As insignificant as these rankings may seem in the near future, they currently loom large. They will not change until next Monday, and they look like this: Memphis is No. 1. Tennessee is No. 2.

The Tigers and Volunteers will play Saturday, and people well outside this state’s borders are already talking about it.

Courtside seats for Saturday night’s FedEx Forum matchup were listed online Monday for five figures.

Clearly, people are excited.

But wait a minute. Tennessee first has to tussle with another Tigers team, with far less fanfare but more significance in the Southeastern Conference.

Auburn (13-10, 3-7) sneaks into Thompson-Boling Arena on Wednesday night hoping to hiccup Saturday’s hype, to tinker with the Tennessee two-step. The 23-2 Vols are 10-1 in the league.

The Associated Press Bruce Pearl’s No. 2 Tennessee team must play Auburn before Saturday’s matchup with No. 1 Memphis.

“I think the Memphis game’s always going to be in the back of our heads,” UT senior guard Chris Lofton said. “But we realize we’ve got an Auburn team coming in here that’s real good, and really capable of beating us. We know that.”

Last year’s Vols went to Auburn, blew a 14-point second-half lead and lost, 83-80.

“They really handed it to us in the second half down there last year,” said UT senior guard Jordan Howell, an Auburn, Ala., native. “After the Georgia game, all we’ve talked about is how we owe Auburn one.

“Auburn stands in the way of us winning an SEC championship. That’s the only game we’re worried about right now.”

Vols coach Bruce Pearl doesn’t often look backward, and he didn’t discuss last season’s loss at Auburn. But he did emphatically state that “the Auburn Tigers are the most important Tigers on our schedule this week.”

Why?

“It’s simple,” Pearl said. “That is an SEC game, and that game is all about doing something that hasn’t been done in 41 years.”

While the No. 2 ranking is the highest in their history, the Vols haven’t won an outright SEC regular-season championship in 41 seasons.

“Memphis isn’t even in our conference,” UT sophomore forward Duke Crews said. “As a team, we came to an agreement that if we could only win one of the two games, we’d rather it be Auburn, because it’s conference play, and we’re trying to do something special in the SEC.”

A reporter opened Lofton’s interview session Monday by asking if the Vols were “ready for those Tigers.”

“You mean Auburn, right?” Lofton replied while laughing.

Pearl and his players went on to state several reasons why they wouldn’t look past Auburn. They listed the Tigers’ SEC wins at LSU and Ole Miss. They mentioned Auburn’s fourth-best SEC field-goal percentage and eight-plus made 3-pointers per game.

Pearl summarized all of his team’s narrow escapes and suggested Auburn “would be playing for an SEC championship” if not for some key injuries, specifically to forward and one-time UT commitment Korvotney Barber.

“They were built for this year,” Pearl said. “We can be as ready as we want to be. We’re going to have to play really well to beat Auburn, the way they’re playing right now.”

Auburn has given some SEC teams fits with its quickness, but that’s a natural offset of key post injuries. Small forward Quan Powell is now a 6-foot-8 center, and 6-4 senior guard Frank Tolbert is at power forward.

As Pearl pointed out, UT’s frontcourt starters — Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism — are also position transplants, but both are bigger than their Wednesday counterparts.

And Wednesday, again, is UT’s bigger game this week. That little 1-2 tussle Saturday is the undercard.

Just ask Pearl.

“The game against Memphis will have other implications,” Pearl said. “It will have (NCAA tournament) seeding implications. It will have implications for being on ‘College Gameday.’ And having so many national media there, there will be implications as far as where our program is at, and the potential for a No. 1 seed, and all of that.

“I don’t think you can compare any of that stuff to 41 years of SEC basketball. It just doesn’t compare, and I don’t think it compares with our guys. We will do everything we can to get ready for Auburn.”

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