It was a tough Tuesday for the Auburn basketball team, who picked up its third loss of the season to the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station. With senior guard Denver Jones out due to a soft tissue injury, the Tigers struggled on offense ,and Jones's absence was felt.
Despite already having won the SEC regular-season title and having all but locked down the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, it was a disappointing loss in which Auburn did not look like the top team in the country.
The Aggies were physically dominant, and head coach Bruce Pearl said his team "got punched in the mouth" in Tuesday's loss. For only the third time this year, Pearl's squad will have to respond to a loss. After their first loss to Duke in December, the Tigers went on a run that lasted until a loss to Florida on Feb. 8, and then Auburn won six more games, including against No. 2 Alabama on the road.
The Tigers are capable of bouncing back, but with only one game left in the season to Alabama at home and the tournament just around the corner, it's even more important that Auburn basketball continues to win.
“We'll be excited about playing at home on Saturday,” Pearl told the Auburn Network, via Auburn Rivals. “We've got the conference championship wrapped up. We'd like to try to wrap up the No. 1 seed... But more importantly, I just want to see how we respond. How do we respond?
“You'd like to be playing your best basketball heading into the postseason. Obviously, tonight wasn't it. We obviously played some great basketball, again, the six or seven games prior, after the Florida game. We clearly picked that up.”
Auburn and Alabama will tip off from Neville Arena this Saturday at 1:30 p.m.