Auburn turned in a dominant performance against Tennessee on Saturday afternoon, cruising to an 85-63 blowout win over the Vols.

For Tennessee, that loss was basically a death blow to their slim NCAA Tournament hopes, but Auburn coach Bruce Pearl isn’t giving up on the Vols just yet.

Pearl, who used to coach at Tennessee, said he’d love to see the Vols get into the field of 68 NCAA tourney teams (via 247Sports):

“I want Tennessee to win three or four more and get into the (NCAA) tournament,” Pearl said. “I admire Rick Barnes so much. He’s one of the best coaches in the country. The job he’s done with these kids, the improvement of (John) Fulkerson, (Jordan) Bowden. Talked about it last time, they just don’t have that true point guard.”

Tennessee and Auburn are on separate sides of the SEC Tournament bracket, so they wouldn’t meet until the championship game (like last year).

Would that be enough to send the Vols dancing? We’ll see what they can do in Nashville this week.