Auburn accomplished quite a bit during the regular season — Southeastern Conference champion, top-ranked for seven straight weeks, a virtual lock as a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.
But after losing their last two regular-season games, the No. 3-ranked Tigers (27-4) feel they have important work to do in the SEC tournament.
Top-seeded Auburn will face eighth-seeded Ole Miss (22-10) in the quarterfinals Friday afternoon in Nashville.
“We’re not at all bought into the theory of — next weekend is the more important weekend than this weekend; they’re both very important,” Tigers coach Bruce Pearl said. “This team has demonstrated that they’re great competitors. They don’t want to lose.”
Auburn had won six consecutive games before losing at then-No. 22 Texas A&M 83-72 and at then-No. 7 Alabama 93-91 in overtime to close the regular season.
“We sure have a chip on our shoulder, just because we know the last couple games, we knew that we could have won,” Auburn guard Denver Jones said. “I feel like there’s going to be a statement when we go in there and just play.”
The Tigers have spent the week focused on themselves in practice because they didn’t learn their opponent until Thursday afternoon. The coaches had a scouting report ready when they learned of the opponent.
Auburn has won the SEC regular-season title twice (2018, 2022) under Pearl, this year’s SEC Coach of the Year, and lost its SEC tournament opener both times.
“Can we be one of only three programs to win both the SEC regular season and the SEC tournament?” Pearl said. “Can we surpass the 2019 team that got to the Final Four? So there’s a lot of opportunity ahead of us.”
The Tigers are led by SEC Player of the Year Johni Broome, who leads the team with averages of 18.6 points and 10.6 rebounds a game.
Auburn beat Ole Miss twice during the regular season, 92-82 on Feb. 1 in Oxford and 106-76 on Feb. 26 in Auburn.
“In both of those games, we didn’t play our best,” Rebels guard Sean Pedulla told the SEC Network shortly after he made a tie-breaking 3-pointer just before the buzzer in an 83-80 win over Arkansas on Thursday in the second round.
“We’ve got to fix the little things and box out, communicate on defense, stick with our rotations.”
The Rebels bounced back from their second loss to the Tigers to win two of their last three regular-season games, including 78-76 over then-No. 4 Tennessee on March 5.
“We’re still a work in progress,” Pedulla said. “We’re still trying to get better.”
Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said he would allow his players to enjoy Thursday’s win for just two hours rather than the customary 12 in the regular season. He practiced what he was preaching by putting the victory in perspective just minutes after it ended.
“This was just our first game in the SEC tournament,” Beard said. “We came here to win a championship, and we’re working to improve our seed in the NCAA Tournament.”
–Field Level Media
