Auburn basketball: Tigers’ toughest week begins tonight

Auburn basketball has had a difficult season from the lenses of not having their best player for most of the season (Sharife Cooper) and their second-best player (Justin Powell) missing every game since their top dog returned.

Tonight, the schedule kicks into high gear with yet another Tiger-bowl this season. The good guy Tigers defeated both the Memphis Tigers and the Tigers of Texas Souther in a Tiger twofer in mid-December.

Tonight, it’s the Missouri Tigers, coming in hot with a #12th ranked squad to the Auburn Arena. Mizzou has had signature victories this season, while also taking some beatdowns to SEC foes. They split a series with the free-falling Tennessee Volunteers (it’s rocky everywhere on Rocky Top) and took one on the chin against Mississippi State, but have otherwise breezed through conference play.

In non-conference play, they even picked up a win against Illinois, a national early-season darling that similarly took some tough losses in conference play (THE Ohio State and Maryland say hi).

Tonight, though, they play the hottest commodity in college basketball–and a man who is soaring up NBA Whiteboards virtually everywhere–Sharife Cooper.

Cooper has had quite the run in recent weeks since making his debut against the Alabama Crimson Tide:

That’s two double-doubles in five SEC games, and in Columbia, South Carolina (with Fly War Eagle’s eyes watching at the Colonial Life Arena) he came as close as ever to a triple-double.

At this stage, he appears ready to break out for one, and it would just mean more to get one against the highest-ranked conference foe they’ve encountered all season.

Here’s to hoping Auburn basketball could stake their claim to being the Tiger King with one more Tiger-bowl left against LSU.