Rare is the nonconference college basketball game that excites in mid-December. Especially within the Southeastern Conference. And most especially when it falls only three days before the first-ever early signing period for college football.
And if there commence more than a few conversations throughout Tennessee's sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena this afternoon concerning the signing class new Volunteers football coach Jeremy Pruitt is attempting to cobble together on ridiculously short notice, so be it.
No matter how much the outcome of today's visit from North Carolina's No. 7 Tar Heels means to the short-term reputation of the No. 20 Vols, it's still the revenue generated by football that mostly drives the UT athletic department's wants and needs.
That said, when a Power Five conference school can coax a visit from the defending national champs for a nonconference showdown, the coach of that program, in this case UT's Rick Barnes, deserves some pretty big praise, regardless of today's outcome.
And this game really does matter. Not only because the SEC that the Vols represent entered this past week with a rather embarrassing 1-6 record against UNC's Atlantic Coast Conference, but because as Barnes often says of these types of matchups, "At some point, it's not enough to just play them. You need to win a few of them."
To that end, against most everyone else, the SEC has shown tremendous improvement. At last Monday's dawn, a fairly quiet exam week on tap for most of the league's programs, the SEC stood 97-30 overall and was 4-1 against the Big Ten and 4-3 against the Big 12.
Beyond that, the SEC counted five schools among the NCAA's Top 25 in RPI and none of them answered to Kentucky. Instead, Missouri stood No. 2, just behind dynastic Duke, followed by Texas A&M at No. 8, Arkansas at No. 9 and Alabama at No. 25. Three others - Mississippi State (30), Kentucky (33) and South Carolina (49) - were in the Top 50.
And when it has faced ranked foes such as the Tar Heels, the league has held its own, standing a respectable 7-9 overall against the Top 25.
But after the Vols threw a huge scare into UNC inside the Dean Dome last year before falling 73-71, a Tennessee victory this time around would not only do much to improve the reputation of the football-obsessed SEC but also signal that UT's current national ranking is not only legit but perhaps a tad bit low.
"We knew that we had a schedule to start the season that would give us opportunities," Barnes noted early last week, referencing the team's earlier neutral-court wins over Purdue and N.C. State, as well as its road win at Georgia Tech and narrow neutral-court loss to current No. 1 Villanova.
"(But) our goal has to stay the same. We have to get better."
It is tempting to say that this program has almost never been better off across the board in terms of on-court potential, off-court distractions, academics and player development than right now.
Whatever happens today, Barnes is already 2-0 for his UT career inside Thompson-Boling Arena against Kentucky, including coming from 21 down to upset the Wildcats during the 2015-16 season.
Yet impressive as that was, those Cats weren't the defending national champs. These Tar Heels not only can claim that title, but several key players off that team - including point guard Joel Berry II, wing Theo Pinson and sharp-shooting forward Luke Maye - have returned to haunt Baby Bluebloods opponents this season.
In fact, the Vols fought the good fight against both NCAA finalists last year, scaring both the Tar Heels and Gonzaga.
Barnes even referenced his team's near-misses this past week, noting, "If you go back to last year in Maui, we played two games against teams that ended up (making deep runs in the NCAA tournament, Wisconsin and Oregon), but we weren't able to get it done."
He followed that by adding, "I have talked about this with our league. We want to be known as the league that gets seven or eight great teams in the tournament a year. You have to win early, though."
As basketball seasons go, today's game against the Tar Heels is relatively early. Early but big. For should UT win today that result could play a major role in NCAA tourney seeding come March. And whether most coaches like to talk about it or not, seeds matter. Especially in the early rounds.
There's also this odd stat: The past five times a defending men's national champ has made its way into Thompson-Boling Arena, the Vols have won.
Even UNC coach Roy Williams, who is 6-6 lifetime against Barnes, said of today's game: "I'm really anxious, really interested and anxious to see how we're going to play, because they're going to hit us right between the eyes, and are we going to lay down in the floor in a fetal position and start yelling for mama, or are we going to play basketball?"
The Tar Heels looked like they were yelling for mama during an 18-point loss to physically tough Michigan State earlier this season. The Vols aren't the Spartans, but they are quick and tough and focused enough to exit the Boling Alley this evening with a victory.
Just for fun, let's guess 84-75, which would be one way for Christmas to come early to Volsville, regardless of what happens on Wednesday's early football signing day.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com