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Auburn Basketball: Missouri loss exposes why ’17-’18 a key year for Pearl

By Chris Roush

Feb 18, 2017; College Station, TX, USA; Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl on the sidelines against the Texas A&M Aggies during the second half at Reed Arena. Texas A&M won 81-62. Mandatory Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 18, 2017; College Station, TX, USA; Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl on the sidelines against the Texas A&M Aggies during the second half at Reed Arena. Texas A&M won 81-62. Mandatory Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports /
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Jan 31, 2017; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl reacts to a play during the first half against the Tennessee Volunteers at Auburn Arena. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports /

Here we discuss Auburn basketball‘s recent failures in the SEC Tournament, and why to look forward to the 2017-18 season.

Auburn basketball’s embarrassing 86-83 loss to Missouri in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Nashville on Wednesday night shows just how important the 2017-18 season will be for coach Bruce Pearl.

The Tigers played listless basketball for most of the game, and losing to a Missouri team that had won just seven games during the regular season shows that this is a program that is not ready to make the next leap forward without some major changes during the off-season.

It took Sonny Smith until his fifth season at Auburn before his basketball squad posted a winning record, and his sixth season before it made the NCAA Tournament. So Pearl is ahead of that timeline. But expectations ran high this season due to the high-caliber freshmen recruits, and the team had too many losses — Boston College, Ole Miss and Georgia — that could have been avoided with better decision-making.

In addition, this year’s team lost six of its last eight games. That’s not heading in the right direction. The loss to Missouri exposed everything that is wrong with this team. And those issues won’t be fixed by playing in the NIT.

Here are the four key things Pearl must focus on for next season to be considered a success by Auburn fans, the basketball world, and more importantly, athletic director Jay Jacobs.

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