Ole Miss opens the SEC Tournament Tuesday in the late game of the day against No. 12 seed Auburn. It’s a single elimination contest with the winner facing No. 4 seed Vanderbilt in the double elimination portion of the event on Wednesday.

The Rebels are the No. 5 seemed after finishing the regular season 38-17 overall and 18-12 in the SEC. Ole Miss is a virtual lock to host a regional but is on the outside looking in for a coveted 1-8 national seed.

Ole Miss is likely cemented into a national seed of 9-16, barring a deep run and maybe a tournament title this week in Hoover, meaning the Rebels are home for regional play but would travel for super regionals unless the top-eight seed connected to them gets upset.

What should the Rebels’ goals be for the week?

Losing to Auburn on Tuesday night isn’t the end of the world and won’t knock Ole Miss out of host range in any way, but there’s a middle ground to Hoover — you don’t want to be done before some teams even begin, thus possibly failing down a seed line or two, but you don’t want to be detrimental to what’s more important around the corner.

Ray Tanner used to try to go home as fast as possible to set his team for the true postseason. Vanderbilt hangs around often thanks to its elite pitching and seems to feed off the week. LSU has ridden the wave and seems flat in some years. It's a crapshoot or it doesn't matter either way.

A coach knowing his specific team is the key here. Ole Miss feeds off its offense catching fire, and it sounds like Mike Bianco wants to get his freshman and sophomore some postseason neutral site experience. Bianco has done an excellent job this season managing his players and the mood of the team. And as long as it's managed correctly, Ole Miss hanging around a while can't hurt. There’s value in that as long as…

… It’s not detrimental to having the pitchers primed for regional play.

The Rebels aren’t a deep staff, though Jack Dougherty and Brandon Johnson have given Ole Miss more options than expected in mid-April. We don’t know yet what Bianco is planning for Tuesday. He’s thrown his ace in that early game before, and he’s saved him for more typical rest in past years, as well.

Knowing the player and keeping the main thing the main thing is a big element of SEC Tournament week.

Bianco seemed to indicate he believes Hoover has some added value because of the top-heavy nature of the SEC and how as many as seven SEC teams are vying for top seeds.

“When you talk about 18 wins in the No. 1 conference and look at who we’ve beaten and where we’ve beaten them, RPI, all those things for selecting host sites and national seeds, so many of them out of this conference, maybe that’s decided next week,” Bianco said. “Maybe it comes down to how you perform in Hoover.”

There’s a media call at 5:30 p.m. Monday, so we may know the Tuesday starter at that time. No matter which option Bianco uses, it’s a last opportunity to see the form of Austin Miller, Tyler Myers, Jackson Kimbrell, Wes Burton, Dougherty and Johnson prior to regional play.

Even in Hoover, the adrenaline can be different, so Bianco may want to get a look at one or more of these options in a tournament setting.

This seems like a throwaway line and an obvious one, especially since it’s just happenstance when players get hurt 99.9 percent of the time, and you don’t sit players out of fear.

But with the Rebels in the middle of the most injury-riddled season in recent memory, there will likely be a collective sigh of relief if Ole Miss gets to regional play with no further ailments.

Hamstrings and ankles can derail postseason chances at this point in the season. Play the regulars, get pitchers work and pray a bit for everything to stay upright whether this ends on Tuesday or goes through Sunday.

Gunnar Hoglund and Max Cioffi are out for the year. Tim Elko’s season has been significantly altered. Peyton Chatagnier, Trey LaFleur, Doug Nikhazy and Cael Baker all missed significant time. That list needs to not be any longer when the Rebels take the field in 11 days.