This is an opinion column.

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Charles Barkley has a lot of good ideas. His suggestion that Auburn should go easy in the SEC tournament wasn’t one of them.

No, Auburn shouldn’t consider tanking the SEC tournament to prepare for the NCAA Tournament.

Barkley was at Neville Arena on Wednesday night for the blowout of Ole Miss. Like a lot of Auburn faithful, the most famous Auburn fan is already stressing out about the upcoming SEC and NCAA tournaments.

ESPN interviewed Chuck during Auburn’s 30-point beat down of the Admiral Ackbar Rebel Land Shark Black Bears. During the interview, Chuck talked about the need for rest before March Madness.

Why not cruise through the SEC tournament?

After all, Auburn won the SEC tournament last year, but then flamed out in the first round against Yale. It only makes sense that Auburn should dial it back for the SEC tournament this year, right?

And don’t forget. Florida bounced Alabama out of the 2024 SEC tournament on Friday night. Thanks to a couple days of extra rest, the Crimson Tide then went on its first-ever run to the Final Four.

Yeah, no.

That logic is more problematic than Elon Musk at a job fair for teleworkers.

Auburn doesn’t have to play its best in the SEC tournament to win the national championship. That’s true, but this idea that the SEC tournament is a pitfall before the Big Dance is all kinds of wrong.

The Round Mound of Rebound is one of my favorite people on Planet Earth. Barkley tells it like it is and doesn’t care what anyone thinks. With Barkley in mind, I’ve made a point to craft my columns the exact same way. But just because Barkley gets paid to have a take, that doesn’t mean that everything he says is correct.

When you deal in sports opinions for a living, the point isn’t to be right all the time. In fact, it’s good to be strong and wrong every now and then.

No one likes a know-it-all, but it’s really entertaining to see the talking heads swing and miss.

A fortnight of basketball remains before Auburn takes the court in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena for the SEC tournament’s quarterfinals. Let’s consider the remaining schedule before looking ahead. Auburn (26-2, 14-1) is two games ahead of second-place Alabama in the loss column of the SEC standings with three games to go.

That means Auburn can clinch the regular-season SEC championship before the season finale against the Tide (23-5, 12-3).

No.1 Auburn plays at No.17 Kentucky (19-9, 8-7) at noon on Saturday. Then it’s to No.12 Texas A&M for an 8 p.m. tip on Tuesday night. Auburn then has three whole days of rest built into the schedule before finishing the season with its home game against Alabama at 1 p.m. next Saturday.

Auburn then has five days to rest up for the SEC tournament.

That’s one game over 10 days before the hoops honky-tonk in Nashville, and Auburn could have the regular season championship in hand before even hosting Alabama. How much rest does the best team in the country actually need?

Something tells me Auburn will be ready for its 16-seed matchup in the first round of March Madness no matter what happens in the SEC tournament. If Auburn loses again in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it’s not going to be because the team was tired.

The way Auburn is playing right now, Pearl shouldn’t change a thing. But it’s not just that. Auburn is chasing something more than trophies this March. The Tigers are gunning for the record books, too. This is an all-time team with the potential to go down as one of the best to ever do it in the season of SEC basketball like no other.

A team like that isn’t built to go half speed in the SEC tournament.

This isn’t the NBA. In the SEC, the good players still care more about the names on the front of the jerseys than the ones on the back.

Johni Broome, Chad Baker-Mazara, Chris Moore and Dylan Cardwell want it all. Those seniors didn’t return to Auburn to worry about load management. They came back to make history. They came back to win every game in March.

This is a team to be feared. This is a team with a chance to rival the 2007 Florida Gators and 1996 Kentucky.

March is almost here and Auburn will begin the month in the home of Big Blue. That’s fitting. The Tigers have a chance to be just as good or better than every team to ever play in that town.

Greatness doesn’t rest. All-time teams don’t tank in the postseason. Auburn is standing on the edge of history and the mission is clear. Win. Every. Game.

BE HEARD

Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”