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Bruce Pearl says the Auburn Tigers are the most important Tigers that Tennessee plays this week.

I suppose John Calipari might add that Tulane's Green Wave is the most important Green Wave that Memphis plays this week.

The college basketball spotlight is already focused on Saturday when No. 2 Tennessee plays No. 1 Memphis on ESPN at the FedEx Forum. It's only the biggest regular-season college basketball game ever in the state of Tennessee, as far as anyone can recall.

But today is only Wednesday.

Tennessee, intent on winning the school's first outright SEC title since 1967, doesn't want to stumble over Auburn tonight at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Memphis doesn't want its perfect season spoiled tonight at Tulane - a team that has beaten LSU, Georgia and Auburn.

"It's a challenge,'' Calipari said Tuesday. "It's hard.''

At his Monday press conference, Pearl was reluctant to even mention Memphis. Calipari's teleconference Tuesday was an open forum. The result: two minutes on Tulane; the remaining 28 on Tennessee.

"Tickets are going like Super Bowl tickets,'' said Calipari. "It's incredible.''

Even Pearl phoned Calipari "begging for tickets" Tuesday, trying to find a seat for Peyton Manning. At this point, only Manning, or maybe Bill Gates, could afford a ticket.

This game is a great event for Memphis and for Tennessee, though not necessarily for all of the same reasons.

For the Vols, it's a grand weekend to fly the orange flag in the top recruiting hotbed in the state, distant Shelby County.

"They're closer to Washington, D.C.,'' said Calipari. "They're so far from us and what we do it's incredible.''

(Turnover, coach. According to Mapquest.com, the White House is 492 miles from my driveway. Beale Street is only 397 miles.)

For Memphis, it's a chance to promote itself to the rest of the state in general and, in specific, to the legislators in Nashville.

When you discuss Memphis with a group of Tennessee fans, you don't get very far before somebody mentions "Tiger High" or some other derogatory reference. Calipari sees Saturday as a soapbox to challenge that perceived injustice.

"We need to let them (the legislature) understand they've got a jewel down here,'' Calipari said.

"We have one (jewel) already. That is the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. A lot of tax dollars get spent there. Let's make an anchor on the other side of the state.''

Calipari would have Memphis become our state's Michigan State to UTK's Michigan. That's his analogy, not mine.

I'm not sure that UT fans have much interest in seeing tax dollars spent on a new library on the University of Memphis campus.

Their weekend soapbox is basketball related. Their idea of improving the UTK campus is having a prep-star shooting guard from Memphis move in the dorm.

Differences aside, there is common ground to be shared this weekend.

For both schools, it's exposure you couldn't buy. The presence of ESPN - beginning with the College GameDay Show - assures an orgy or attention, the kind usually reserved for Duke-North Carolina.

For the winner, it's an opportunity to lock up a No. 1 seed in the fast-approaching NCAA tournament. For both teams, it's a welcome test of tournament readiness.

"I could see us getting beat,'' Calipari said. "They're that good.

"It's hard to do what Bruce is doing (at UT) with football, women's basketball, baseball. To make your niche is hard and he's made his niche. And I've got to give him credit.''

By midnight Saturday, as long as the game isn't a blowout, both programs will have been mutual beneficiaries.

But first, they have to get to midnight tonight.

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276 or strange2@knews.com.

© 2008, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.