Monday night, the Auburn basketball program will close out its non-conference schedule against the Monmouth Hawks in Neville Arena. With only one loss on the team's record so far— to Duke at the infamous Cameron Indoor— the Tigers have nearly survived a gauntlet of a non-conference schedule.
Auburn basketball beat #4 Houston, #5 Iowa State, and #16 Purdue, along with winning the Maui Invitational Tournament during the Thanksgiving holidays, but have been consistently ranked #2 behind Tennessee for the past few weeks.
With SEC play drawing closer, the difficulty level of the schedule is only increasing. Head coach Bruce Pearl believes his youngest players on the team are making a real difference in the Tigers' game, including freshman Jakhi Howard, who had a rocky start on the Plains.
After the incident on the plane with Ja'Heim Hudson, Howard missed six games to kick of his Auburn career but has been working his way back into the rotation and making big plays for the Tigers. According to Bruce Pearl, the key to Howard's progress on the Plains will be patience.
"Jahki's a really, really talented player and he's a really hard-working player, and he's got great, great upside," Pearl said, per Auburn Undercover. "Yeah, the question is going to be patience. He's on a team that's ranked second in the country right now and he's playing the same position as three seniors in Miles Kelly, Chad Baker and Denver Jones. And so, I think he's done a really good job sort of understanding that he can have a great impact on this team. And at the same time, like Tahaad (Pettiford), who's had more of an opportunity earlier because we weren't as deep at his position, got a lot to learn and is learning. He's improved defensively; he's improved his communication."
Auburn basketball heads into the game with an 11-1 record after a big win over #16 Purdue in Birmingham. Monmouth currently has a 2-10 record and is coming off a recent win over Fairfield. The Tigers and the Hawks will tipoff from Neville Arena at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.