Auburn schedules Houston, neutral-site game at Toyota Center on tap
AUBURN — Auburn basketball will play Houston in the Toyota Center in Houston, Tex. during the 2024-25 non-conference schedule next season.
The game will be played on November 9. Houston will return and play in Birmingham at Legacy Arena during the 2025-26 season.
This story was updated on August 1 with quotes from Bruce Pearl following the official announcement.
“Kelvin Sampson has returned the Houston Basketball program back to the days of greatness with Guy Lewis, Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler,” Pearl said. “His teams fight hard and are physical. They play the right way. With our SEC/ACC Challenge game at Duke and this game versus Houston at the Toyota Center, we will have two road contests against the preseason top two teams in the country. That’s never happened in Auburn Basketball history, so be careful of what you wish for.”
The Tigers are 1-7 all-time against the Cougars, with the lone win happening during the 1962-62 season in New Orleans, La., currently having lost six straight in the series.
The two teams have only played once since 1982. The duo met in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., where 1-seed Houston beat 8-seed Auburn by the score of 81-64. The Tigers actually led by 10 at halftime.
Houston went 32-5 last season and 15-3 in conference play. In the NCAA Tournament, the Cougars lost in the Sweet 16 to Duke with star Jamal Shead sitting on the bench injured.
Auburn went 27-8 overall and 13-5 in conference play last season, winning the SEC Tournament in Nashville. It was the Tigers’ second conference tournament title and fourth overall conference championship under Bruce Pearl.
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Houston and Auburn are both already being mentioned in every preseason Top 25 poll by college basketball pundits. Houston will be considered a preseason Top 5-ish team, with Auburn hovering around the Top 10.
The Cougars are bringing in two high school prospects ranked inside the top 76 nationally, plus Oklahoma point guard transfer Milos Uzan, a former 4-star prospect out of high school.
Bruce Pearl recently said this would be Auburn’s toughest non-conference schedule during his tenure.
The Tigers are already set to play in the Maui Invitational this November. The 41st annual tournament will return to the historic Lahaina Civic Center Nov. 25-27, 2024. Auburn joins a field that consists of Memphis, Michigan State, UConn, Colorado, Dayton, Iowa State and North Carolina. The Tigers are guaranteed to play three games in the tournament.
Auburn returns a deep, experienced and talented roster. It will feature as much versatility as Pearl has maybe ever had during his tenure. The Tigers will be inside the Top 10 in most preseason polls. During the offseason, the Tigers added transfers Miles Kelly, JP Pegues and Ja’Heim Hudson to the roster, in addition to high school freshmen Tahaad Pettiford and Jahki Howard.
According to KenPom analytics, here are Auburn’s most recent strength of schedule ratings:
2024: 60th
2023: 26th
2022: 41st
2021: 37th
2020: 62nd
2019: 11th
2018: 57th
