Before Auburn made the trek across the state to Tuscaloosa on Tuesday afternoon, Bruce Pearl sat his team down and went through the varying potential paths that lie in front of the Tigers entering the final week of the regular season.

Auburn is 19-10 overall and 9-7 in SEC play with two games remaining this week: Wednesday night’s tilt against rival No. 2 Alabama and Saturday’s home finale against No. 12 Tennessee.

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Before the Tigers play either of those games, though, Pearl wanted his players to understand what was at stake this week in terms of postseason possibilities and lay out just what those scenarios are for Auburn with Selection Sunday less than two weeks away. He went over what two wins would look for Auburn; they’d be, without a doubt, the Tigers’ two best wins of the seasons, both against Quad 1 opponents. He relayed what a split of the final two games could look like, and how it would all but assure Auburn of another NCAA Tournament berth. And he went over what losing to both the Tide and Vols could do for the Tigers—leaving them with work to do in next week’s SEC Tournament and a potentially uneasy feeling come Selection Sunday.

“(I) just always put it out there so the guys understand,” Pearl said. “You never want to look back and have them be in any sort of a doubt, and then look forward to the SEC Tournament. We have an idea of who we could play in the first game, one way or the other. Typically, the first game, it’s not going to be an opponent that could put you in. But it’s definitely an opponent that could put you out. So, we have a chance to play two opponents that could get us in, right here, right now.”

That’s the mission statement for Auburn this week as the team tries to find any semblance of momentum heading into the postseason.

The Tigers have lost seven of their last 10 games, with five of those losses by single digits and four of them by five points or fewer. Auburn has also dropped five straight on the road, including last weekend’s blowout at the hands of Kentucky — an 86-54 loss that marked the most lopsided defeat for Pearl’s team this season.

Despite that, Auburn is still projected to make the field of 68 for the fourth time in the last five postseasons. According to Bart Torvik’s T-rank, Auburn still has an 84.4 percent chance of making the NCAA Tournament thanks to its resume throughout the season. The Tigers are 37th in NET rankings as of Wednesday morning, and they’re still a top-30 team according to KenPom.

“We lost five straight Saturdays,” Pearl said. “And that wears on you. And I would say that this was the most discouraged that we’ve been because we were just so outplayed and outperformed and overwhelmed at Kentucky in the second half…. We really want to take advantage of the body of our work. This team has worked really, really hard to maintain its position and to continue to have a chance to compete for third place still or be in position to make the tournament based on the body of our work.

“You’d just would hate to see it go away at the end just because the schedule was so overwhelming, and we weren’t up to the task.”

Auburn can ease some of that pressure Wednesday night if it can knock off No. 2 Alabama in Coleman Coliseum. That’s no small ask; Alabama is undefeated at home this season and has beaten teams by an average of 25.9 points per game in those 14 contests in Tuscaloosa. Auburn also dropped the first matchup with Alabama this season, falling at Neville Arena on Feb. 11, 77-69.

“We’ve got two months opponents in front of us,” Pearl said. “Alabama, just beating people by 26 at home on average is an astounding figure…. But it’s a great opportunity for us, because as I look at it, winning one of these next two games puts us in position where we’d be a lock to make the tournament. I’ve been in situations in other years where there’s nothing left on the schedule to really get you over the hump, that really can get you in. And then you have to hope that somebody else loses.

“Well, we don’t have that situation. We are still in control of our own destiny.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.