Bruce Pearl expects tough challenge at Texas: '...this is going to be even more of a road game...' than at Duke

AUBURN -- When No. 2 Auburn (12-1) visited Duke in December, as wild as the atmosphere inside Cameron Indoor Stadium was, there were also a large quantity of Tigers' fans in attendance. So many so, that administrators at Duke sent out emails to season ticket holders the following day acknowledging the amount of Auburn fans present and asking the Duke season ticket holders to not sell their tickets to opposing fans. Bruce Pearl doesn't anticipate nearly as many Auburn fans in Austin, Texas on Tuesday night, thus prompting him to say he believes Auburn's second true road-game experience against Texas (11-3) could be the most difficult test to date. "Well, I think this is going to even be more of a road game because at Duke, there were, place only holds 8,500 or something like that, and we had at least a thousand people in the building. And so at Duke, we absolutely could hear the crowd. We got off to a great start, which I think is important on the road. But, this is going to be a even harder environment because I don't expect to have as many, I don't expect to have a thousand Auburn fans down there," Pearl said. "I'd love to. And I don't know whether the game is sold out or not. I'm sure it's a great crowd. But yeah, I mean, one of the questions I'll ask the team today in preparation is tell me what they say about teams that can win on the road, what do they say about them? And then we'll fill in the blanks and see if that's who we are." More from Pearl on defending Texas' perimeter players, getting back on transition, praising his coaching staff for their advanced scouting capabilities and more.