It would be the icing on the cake, the cherry on top and just about any other catch-all cliché that indicates a perfect ending to the home-court season.

Plain and simple: Tennessee hopes to sweep rival Kentucky for the first time since the 1998-99 season tonight at Thompson-Boling Arena (TV: WVLT, 8 p.m.). It would be the first sweep over the Wildcats since the 1998-99 season.

"A win over Kentucky," UT first-year coach Bruce Pearl said, "would make this season even more special."

Tennessee (20-5, 11-3 SEC) has already clinched the SEC East Division title and secured an NCAA tournament berth.

But a win over the Wildcats (18-10, 86) remains a valuable commodity.

Pearl's first mission statement after taking the job at UT was to renew the Vols' rivalry with the traditional power to the north.

UT accomplished that and more with a 75-67 victory at Rupp Arena on Feb. 7, snapping an eight-game losing streak in the series and taking firm control of the East Division.

There were storylines within that story: Chris Lofton scoring a then-career-high 31 points against the team that snubbed him in recruiting and Pearl breaking out his bright orange sport coat for the ESPN showdown.

"It was one of our best games of the year,'' Pearl said. "But I'm still focused on the fact that we haven't played our best basketball yet.''

Tennessee might need to do just that to beat a resurgent Kentucky team that has won three of its last four.

"They're playing better than they were the first time they played us,'' said UT assistant coach Jason Shay, who handled scouting for the Kentucky games. "I look for a concerted effort from them to get the ball inside.''

The Vols have dropped two of their past three games (Alabama and Arkansas) to teams with big, athletic front lines.

The Wildcats, as of late, have been playing with a bigger lineup.

As it was in the last meeting, Randolph Morris, Kentucky's 6-foot-10 sophomore post, burned UT for 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting.

If not for Lofton's heroic 31-point effort, the Vols surely would have lost in Lexington.

Lofton isn't placing any extra pressure on himself entering tonight's game.

"I'll just try to play hard and get the win,'' said Lofton, who has been held below his 17.5 points per game scoring average in UT's last two contests, against Florida and Arkansas. "I can't worry about their plan to guard me. This is a big game for us; we need to get back in the 'W' column.''

And Pearl is determined to get the upper-hand in Tennessee's renewed rivalry with Kentucky.

"How many times are we going to play Kentucky with a team capable of beating them?'' Pearl said. "A lot of times in the past, Kentucky was so good, teams just weren't capable of beating them.''

Indeed, UT has swept the season series just once (1998-99) in the past 26 years and only seven times in the 79 years of home-and-home meetings since 1925.

The Vols are also motivated by the prospect of winning their first regular-season SEC championship since 1999-2000.

UT needs to win its final two games, against Kentucky and at Vanderbilt, and hope LSU loses Saturday at home vs. Ole Miss.

"We'd like to be SEC champs, period,'' Pearl said. "We will win more championships during the course of my career here. But this one (SEC East) is significant because it was unexpected.

"You'd like to end the regular season on a high note.''

Taking all things into account, there's no better way than sweeping Kentucky.

Surprise JaJuan: Pearl said backup point guard JaJuan Smith has been the biggest surprise on the team this season.

"He just didn't play as much (last year), but as a sophomore he's made a lot of big plays,'' Pearl said. "I knew C.J. (Watson) and Chris were terrific, and I knew Dane (Bradshaw) would be a great chemistry player.''

Smith, a former UT walk-on, is averaging 24.3 minutes per game off the bench and averages 9.7 points.

Season vs. Tournament: Pearl said winning the SEC regular-season title would mean more to him than winning the SEC tournament.

"It's more significant because you get the automatic (NCAA) bid,'' Pearl said. "It is valued more by a coach because it's done over the long haul.''

Lofton Record?: Lofton has made 36 consecutive free throws and is closing in on the SEC record for most consecutive free throws made in a season.

Kentucky's Travis Ford made 44 in a row in 1994. The UT record is 39 consecutive free throws, set by Danny Schultz in 1963.

Lofton's streak ranks 12th in SEC history.

"I'm aware of it,'' Lofton said. "But I try to just block everything out.''

Sellout?: Tonight's game is not technically a sellout yet. Late Tuesday, UT received a few hundred tickets from the student allotment of 5,000 that was not used.

The $14 tickets are available at Thompson-Boling Arena today 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m., by phone at 865-656-1200 or on the Internet at www.utsports.com

Bracketology: Pearl could be headed for a showdown with former UT coach Buzz Peterson and Coastal Carolina if Joe Lunardi has it right in ESPN.com's "Bracketology.''

The Vols are listed as a No. 3 seed in the Jacksonville, Fla., region, where they're projected to play Big South champion Winthrop.

So what if Coastal Carolina crew wins the Big South Tournament instead of Winthrop?

Another possibility, should UT slip to a No. 4 seed, would be a first-round match up with Pearl's old team, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which is a projected No. 13 seed.

The Vols are No. 4 in the RPI ratings index, and Pearl said he thinks UT is a "two or three seed.''