CBS Sports drinks haterade with black-pilled assessment of Auburn basketball's 2024-25 season
Auburn basketball was ranked No. 27 in CBS Sports' Matt Norlander's 2024-25 college hoops preseason rankings in what may be the most haterade even consumed by a sports writer before concocting such a list.
Norlander wrote off the Tigers' transfer class and touted the non-conference schedule as something that would wear Auburn down before SEC play, not make them battle-hardened.
"Bruce Pearl has a group with sites set again on winning the SEC, though as you can see I'm a seller on that idea," Norlander wrote. "Every year there are a few teams ranked in the preseason that prove to be overshots, and I'll take a chance Auburn applies here. I already know the tut-tutting from Auburn fans is going to follow me well into the season. I've accepted it. For reasons hard to foresee, some teams just take steps back. Chad Baker-Mazara and Denver Jones return, and those two should be double-digit scorers alongside Broome. Furman's JP Pegues, who dropped 18.4 a night last season, will also squeeze in here as a viable option in Pearl's offense. The transfer class isn't great, though: EvanMiya ranks this class 70th in the country and second-worst in the SEC, a league so stacked that surprise results are unavoidable. And given how good Auburn's schedule is (Houston, the Maui Invitational, Duke, Ohio State, Purdue; it's loaded) in the noncon, it's going to take on some losses before what I think will be one of the toughest SEC slates in the conference."
Auburn basketball testing itself during regular season to prepare for March Madness
Auburn had a decent 2023-24 non-conference schedule but it looked better on paper than in actuality. USC turned out to be a non-factor despite the Bronny James/Isaiah Collier hype, Indiana ended up being so disappointing under Mike Woodson that Bruce Pearl coaching the Hoosiers became a hot rumor in Bloomington, and their ACC-SEC Challenge counterpart Virginia Tech was a doormat at the Neville Arena.
Appalachian State ended up being their toughest matchup. Who woulda thunk?
This year, Pearl isn't playing around. He put Houston, Duke, and Purdue, three of the top teams in Norlander's rankings, on the schedule. The SEC is stronger than ever too.
It's put up or shut up for an Auburn team that has won one March Madness game since the cancelled COVID-19-stricken 2019-20 season. Norlander thinks the Tigers won't be roaring, though, evidently.