AUBURN — Coming off a 13-point comeback win against its biggest rival, Auburn returns home for one of its toughest tests of the season.

The Tigers (21-9, 10-7 SEC) will host arguably the best team in the conference Tennessee (27-3, 15-2 SEC) who would clinch at least a share of the SEC regular-season title with a win. An Auburn win would mean a lot for the Tigers' chances at a double-bye in the SEC Tournament, which is given to the top-4 seed.

Here are the five storylines to follow heading into that matchup.

The last time Auburn faced Tennessee, nobody knew if Bruce Pearl's program at Auburn would become anything at all.

The Tigers had averaged less than 15 wins in Pearl's first three seasons. A CBSSports projection predicted Auburn would go 4-14 in SEC play, which became the team's motivating mantra for the 2017-18 season. College basketball's looming FBI investigation further muddied the clarity of Auburn's future under Bruce Pearl.

Then Auburn faced Tennessee, its first conference game. The Tigers took a 10-point win from the Volunteers who turned out to be Auburn's top conference competition. The two teams — through all of their unexpected successes and national acclaim — haven't seen each other since.

"How about this one? We’ve played Alabama five times since the time we played Tennessee last. Because we played — you know, that’s the way it works because we played them last year at the beginning of the game — beginning of the year," Pearl said. "So it’s a brand new scout."

The nation has gotten to know Tennessee well during its rise to prominence.

Tennessee sat atop the Associated Press rankings this season. Save for back-to-back losses earlier this season, the Volunteers have looked downright unbeatable at times. Tennessee's only slip-ups this season have all come away from home against team's currently ranked in the top 15 nationally.

"They’ve lost to Kansas, Kentucky and LSU and beaten everybody else. They’re really good," Pearl said. "Just when you didn’t think it could get any tougher, it gets tougher. Gosh, we had a good week last week. You go to Athens and win. You beat Mississippi State at home and then you go to Alabama and you win. Then the way you celebrate is to welcome Tennessee to Auburn Arena."

At a press conference early this season, Pearl elevated Tennessee above the rest of the top team's in the league. Shortly thereafter, he put Kentucky and LSU up in that category — and, as he's happy to point out, he did that earlier than most. When Pearl looks at the top-3 teams in the league, he recognizes Auburn's matchup troubles with all three of them.

But it's Tennessee who Pearl suggests gives Auburn the biggest problems.

"I’d say probably the toughest matchup for us of the top three teams because of the way they defend, because of their physicality, because of the matchups. And they’ve got some great players," Pearl said.

Here's how Bryce Brown described what the Tigers have to do to match up against the Volunteers:

"Matching their physicality. Matching their effort and energy. We know they're going to come fired up ready to cut down the nets on our court, and we're determined as a team to not let that happen. Like I said, it's on us to match their physicality because they're a very physical team. They're going to try to go inside against us. So we're ready for all that."

Pearl may call it a "new scout" this season, but most of the pieces are the same.

Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield have rightfully earned national player of the year and conference player of the year chatter. It's their point guard Jordan Bone — the younger brother of a former Pearl walk-on at Tennessee — who has received praise at times as the team's most talented or valuable asset. That level have play has Bone in consideration for the Bob Cousy Award handed out to the nation's top point guard.

Those are the big three.

And Pearl, in his coach-as-a-motivator fashion, will use those Volunteers matchups to drive his team.

Take the Williams matchup, for instance. Chuma Okeke will be tasked with defending a frontrunner for the national and league player of the year awards. Pearl wants Okeke to know how good Williams is.

"Grant Williams is a national player of the year semifinalist," Pearl said. "Chuma Okeke’s going to have to match up against another national player of the year nominee. Last time he did it was P.J. Washington and this time it’s Grant Williams. ... I mean, that’s going to be his matchup someway, somehow."

Bone, up for top point guard honors, provides Pearl the easy motivation to give Harper.cIt'll likely be Bryce Brown who defends Bone, but the game could be determined based on which point guard plays the better game.

Pearl believes he has the best point guard in the conference, but it's not his point guard in contention for national recognition.

"I asked Jared Harper, 'I might have missed something, but I didn’t see you as a nominee for the Bob Cousy Award,'" Pearl said. "I think Jared Harper could have been and he wasn’t."

And then there's Schofield — yet another player who can flip a game on its head.

Okeke will likely have to spend some time on Schofield, too. But this will be a huge matchup for combinations of Samir Doughty and Malik Dunbar.

"Admiral Schofield is a finalist for the Julius Ervin Award," Pearl said. "Schofield’s probably playing as well as anybody."

Before tip-off, Auburn's basketball program will honor its four seniors who will go through Senior Day festivities.

Those four: Horace Spencer, Bryce Brown, Malik Dunbar and Cole Blackstock.

Here's what Pearl said about each of his four seniors who will play their last game in Auburn Arena on Saturday.

On Spencer: "It’s just been a blessing watching Horace grow up into a man. And watching them accept his responsibility as a father, knowing at the end of this summer he’s on track to graduate and what it means to him and his family, and Avery. And just to get him started on his professional basketball career and just proud of the fact he’s going to represent Auburn as an Auburn man."

On Brown: "Bryce Brown has grown so much on and off the court. I’m so blessed to have Bryce and his family in my life. We’re all really close. And just another great example of both of those guys it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish and what a place like Auburn can do with athletics, with a spiritual life for both men, and the Auburn family. And Bryce has a good future playing professional basketball and being very involve helping those guys."

On Dunbar: "Malik Dunbar is on track to graduate, probably going to need a full summer. But when you come from junior college, sometimes it’s difficult to get it done in two years. But Malik, another father that has accepted the responsibilities of being a dad and a student-athlete. Malik has such great energy, is a great teammate. There have been times all three of those guys have been frustrated: not able to play a bigger role or whatever, but affected winning so much and made sacrifices and grown. Malik has a good future, too, playing professionally."

On Blackstock: "Then Cole Blackstock. Just — he’s been there every year from the time he was a freshman. Just a model student-athlete. Going to be a great engineer. We’ve had a lot of guys graduate from the School of Engineering — Pat Keim a year ago, and that’s such a tough program. But those guys get out. And some day, a lot of us will be working for them. Cole worked every day in practice. He had to go up against — from Cinmeon Bowers to Austin to Horace to Anfernee and did such a great job on the scout team. We’ve got some managers. Willie’s been with us since the beginning, done a great job. Has a great future in coaching. So, it’s a great group. It’s a great group. It’ll be great for us to recognize their accomplishments on and off the court."

Pearl was asked a question at his Thursday presser, and he couldn't help but interrupt.

The question began: Bryce Brown and Horace Spencer went from 11-20 to maybe two-straight NCAA Tournaments...

"Oh, they’re going to go to their second-straight NCAA Tournament," Pearl intervened.

Those conversations are long gone. Avoiding a loss at Georgia probably did that. If that wasn't enough, a Quadrant 1 win over Mississippi State surely did the trick. But there are no doubts whatsoever the road comeback in Tuscaloosa confirmed once and for all Auburn will be an NCAA Tournament team this season.

Now the questions surround seeding.

The Tennessee game can have a direct effect on Auburn's SEC Tournament seeding. With a win, Auburn clinches either the fourth seed or the fifth seed in Nashville. South Carolina holds the tiebreak over Auburn, so it would require the Gamecocks falling to a bottom-of-the-league Georgia team to land the fourth seed.

That fourth spot would earn the Tigers a double-bye in the SEC Tournament, something Auburn has been aiming for the last few weeks.

"He's actually talked to us about our seeding and things like that the last couple games," Brown said. "Beating Georgia at Georgia was a game to get us in the tournament. Beating Alabama at Bama is just improving our seeding. This one right here against Tennessee would possible have us at a 4 seed. He's constantly reminding us because it's just another great opportunity on Saturday."

Pearl said this game means plenty for the bigger picture.

"Obviously for us the opportunity to move up in the SEC standings, get a better seed for the tournament and put ourselves in a better position to win. The key to winning is getting a great seed and we have an opportunity to improve our seeding by beating a Top-5 team," Pearl said.

• If Bryce Brown makes five 3-pointers — yes, it would need to be a big game — he would tie former Tennessee guard Allan Houston for fourth all-time in career 3-pointers made by an SEC player. Houston is at 346. Brown is at 341. It'd be fitting to catch or pass him against the Volunteers.

• KenPom gives Auburn a 48 percent chance to beat Tennessee. The Volunteers are 1-point favorites, according to most reputable online sports books.

• Here's a Bruce statistic Bruce Pearl keeps mentioning publicly: "And, you know, we’ve got to do something about the fact that on 12 out of 17 contests, the opponents are shooting more free throws than we are. We’ve got to foul less and we’ve got to find a way to get to the foul line more. 12 in 17 games — that’s a mathematical problem."