About an hour before practice Monday, Cory Luckie already had a pretty good hunch about what advice coach John Pawlowski would give to the Tigers for today’s 9:30 a.m. SEC Tournament opener against Alabama.

It’s the “coach-speak” Pawlowski typically catches himself saying before he says it, but says anyway. And it’s exactly how the veteran-laden Tigers plan to handle their first SEC Tournament appearance since 2003 — despite all the extraneous circumstances that make today’s game at Regions Park in Hoover anything but ordinary.

“We’re going to treat it just like it’s one of our midweek games,” said Luckie, today’s starting pitcher. “We’re not going to treat it any better than it is because if we do that, we’ll try to do too much and we’re not going to come through.”

The winner of today’s game plays the winner of Ole Miss-South Carolina on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. The loser plays the loser of Ole Miss-South Carolina on Thursday at 10:30 a.m.

A couple wins could go a long way toward helping the Tigers sew up homefield advantage for the upcoming NCAA Regionals. Auburn, ranked in the top 15 in all major collegiate baseball polls, has already submitted its paperwork to become one of the 16 opening-round host sites, an award that can sometimes — fair or not — go beyond wins or losses.

“When you look at our full body of work and what we’ve accomplished so far, I would think that they would have to give strong consideration to a team winning the West,” Pawlowski said.

“I feel like our body of work is never finished … We want to go in there and win this tournament.”

Whatever the Tigers did to calm their nerves throughout the second half of the season, when they won their final five series and 12 of their last 15 SEC games, will likely be just what the doctor ordered for today’s first-round matchup in the double-elimination tournament.

That delivery will just have to occur earlier than it has for any of the Tigers (39-17, 20-10 SEC) since they became collegiate baseball players.

Luckie had a tough time remembering the last time he took the mound earlier than 10 a.m.

“Maybe back when I was 10 or 12 years old,” Luckie said. “It’s been a while.”

Pawlowski said Monday that the team, which arrived in Hoover on Monday night and practiced at Regions Park early Tuesday, would likely have an earlier-than-usual curfew leading up to today’s game.

Not that an early bedtime will make much difference.

“Those guys will be laying in bed thinking about the game,” Pawlowski said. “At 9:30 in the morning, they’ve got to be ready to compete. It’s something. It’s postseason, they’ve got to be ready.”

Here’s the thing, though. None of Auburn’s players have any postseason experience, and they’re the only group among the eight-team field that wasn’t in last year’s tournament.

Luckie had to dial back to his days at Prattville High to think of the last time he, or any of his teammates, played in a playoff environment.

“We’re not thinking about it,” Luckie said. “We’re having fun right now. I really think that’s all that counts. We’re having fun and we’re just going to treat these games like any other game.”

Many of today’s early-riser fans will beg to differ.

As much as Luckie, a lifelong Auburn fan, and Pawlowski say today’s tournament game is just another stop on the schedule, it’s still Auburn-Alabama — a rivalry no matter the sport.

And even though the anticipation for such games is muddled a bit in baseball — the teams have already faced off four times this year and each won twice — there’s still an underlying — OK, obvious — storyline that goes beyond today’s game being a routine tournament opener.

“It’s intriguing, it’s enticing, it’s exciting for the fans,” Pawlowski said. “I think that element is always going to be there. It will be an exciting atmosphere and one that we’re excited to be a part of.”

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