Bruce Pearl shares mindset behind scheduling tough non-conference opponents

Auburn men’s basketball won’t waste any time playing against legitimate competition this season. They play Houston, Iowa State, Duke and Purdue before they even get to SEC play, which features nine teams ranked in the preseason Top 25.

During halftime of Auburn’s football game against Vanderbilt on Saturday, Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl joined SEC Network host Peter Burns to discuss his team’s non-conference strength of schedule. Burns asked Pearl if he was crazy for putting this type of schedule together.

“Peter, we worked so hard to get our program to a place where those teams are going to want to play us. Like, they believe an opportunity to play against Auburn is a quality win. That wasn’t the case 10 years ago.

“I know student-athletes come to Auburn because they want to be able to play against the best. It’s a real responsibility to us representing the SEC, to play that schedule and beat some of those teams.”

Fans were given a small sample of what his team is capable of during the team’s two preseason exhibitions.

Auburn beat up on Florida Atlantic by a score of 102-70 during a charity exhibition on Friday night, which was played to help raise money to benefit the AU Melton Scholars Program. Pearl said he’s fired up for the season, which was apparent when he was called for a technical foul for his emotions during the scrimmage.

Pearl said scores may not be so lopsided during the regular season, though, and that rings especially true in the non-conference while many of his SEC cohorts will be playing mostly lower-level mid-major teams.

However, it might get cluttered at the top of a very strong group of teams within SEC basketball.

“There are nine SEC basketball teams that could be ranked in the top 25,” Pearl said. “The good news — we want to top 30 teams in the country. The bad news? We can finish 10th in this league, and so that’s what you absolutely want.”

Pearl has committed to Auburn playing the best teams in and out of the SEC during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, which will have a major impact on their body of work when it comes to NCAA Tournament qualifications. They’re sure to play a healthy dose of Quad 1 opponents this season.

That effort starts against No. 4 Houston on Nov. 9. However, Auburn still doesn’t have it easy on the mid-major side of things, either as they will have to put away Vermont, who has made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three years.