What Bruce Pearl said ahead of Auburn hosting No. 12 Tennessee

AUBURN — For Bruce Pearl and this year’s Auburn basketball team, it may all come down to this. No. 12 Tennessee travels to Neville Arena for a 1 p.m. CT tipoff on Saturday for a critical game in the Tigers’ season.

Auburn enters with a 19-11 overall record, 9-8 SEC record, and NET ranking of 36th. Tennessee enters 22-8 overall, 11-6 in league play, and a NET ranking of 3rd.

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It’s a Quad I opportunity for both teams, but for Auburn, the game certainly takes on greater significance.

Pearl’s group is on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble at this point, but barely. Losing another Quad I game could push Auburn onto the wrong side of the bubble. A win, however, could jump Auburn inside the top 30 in the NET ranking depending on the rest of the action around college basketball. Teams inside the top 30 in the NET rankings are generally viewed as locks for the NCAA Tournament.

“Adversity reveals character, and we’ve had our share of it. But we’re still in position to be in position,” Bruce Pearl said on Friday.

Fresh off losing to No. 2 Alabama by five points in overtime, a game in which they led by 17 points, it will be interesting to see Auburn’s energy and focus on Saturday afternoon. Can the Tigers put the past three weeks behind them and muster a one more push against a Tennessee team coming off an 18-point win against Arkansas?

Auburn’s enjoyed recent success against Tennessee, winning six of the last eight, with three of those coming by double digits. But after winning six straight in the series from 2017-2021, Auburn has now lost two straight. Both of those losses were in Knoxville by a combined eight points over the last two seasons.

The Tigers have beaten Tennessee three straight times inside Neville Arena.

Saturday’s game also marks the third time the two teams have met in the regular season finale in the last five seasons. Auburn won the previous two.

In 2019, Auburn defeated No. 5 Tennessee on their way to gathering momentum for a Final Four run. The win also blocked Tennessee from sharing the SEC regular season title with LSU.

In 2020, the Tigers whipped Tennessee by 22 points in Knoxville on the way to earning the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament. Of course, that tournament was cancelled due to Covid.

As always, here’s what Pearl said on Friday ahead of the Tigers and the Vols:

— Pearl starts by looking back at the Alabama game: “Let’s look back for a second. Really proud of our guys for sucking it up after getting beat at Kentucky the way we did and managing to get up off the ground and fight. I give my assistant coaches a ton of credit for work behind the scenes and healing some souls after so many close losses… then you get kicked in the teeth again. But that’s ok, adversity reveals character.”

— — “At the end of the day, we lost the game because we couldn’t stay in front and keep them off the foul line,” he says of the Alabama loss.

— “It’s March and we can still make the tournament,” Pearl adds.

— Tennessee is the most physical team in the country and the best defense in the country, Pearl says. “It was all we could do to score 43 points there.”

— Pearl: “We have to have another great crowd tomorrow.” Pearl says because of spring break, *if* the student section is completely filled, the ticket office will sell additional standing room only tickets.

— BP notes nobody has played Tennessee better on the road than Kentucky, nobody has played Alabama better on the road, and virtually nobody has played Texas A&M better on the road in the SEC than Auburn.

(For clarity, Texas A&M has had some close SEC games at home, some closer than Auburn’s five-point difference. Alabama had a three-point win over Mississippi State and Arkansas at home, but has been winning home SEC games by nearly 20 points per game this season. Tennessee was defeated by Kentucky and Missouri at home, but has mostly dominated teams at home, including beating Alabama in Knoxville. All that to say, Pearl’s point is valid: Auburn is the only team to travel to play the best three teams in the league, and play all of them that closely on the road.)

— Pearl on improved offensive play over the past few games, averaging 75 points per game since scoring 43 at Tennessee: “I think the kids should have some confidence. We’re obviously shooting the ball better.”

— Dylan Cardwell won’t practice today and is “doubtful” for the game against Tennessee, Bruce Pearl says.

— Pearl says rebounding, rebounding and rebounding are the most important parts of the game on Saturday against a big, strong team in Tennessee.

— “It’ll be emotional for me,” Pearl says of Senior Night. Mentions Zep Jasper and his family, Stretch and his contributions to the team and unbelievably good attitude, Jaylin Williams and Allen Flanigan… he just really noted the things they each have contributed to the program. Pearl also mentions Lior Berman coming in as a walk-on the way he did at Boston College and the way Steven Pearl did at Tennessee.

— “The bench was terrific against Alabama,” Pearl notes. Loves Chris Moore’s “energy,” and expects Moore, and Yohan Traore, to play important minutes on Saturday.