Auburn basketball makes its SEC Tournament debut today at noon, and for the third time this season, the Tigers will be facing the Ole Miss Rebels. Ole Miss took down Arkansas 83-80 in the last seconds of their game yesterday with a long three-pointer from Sean Pedulla.
The Tigers met the Rebels twice in the regular season and won both times. On February 1, the Tigers won 92-82 in Oxford and played one of their best games of the season. Then they beat Ole Miss in Neville Arena 106-76 on February 26.
For the first time this season, head coach Bruce Pearl's squad is heading into a game on a losing streak. The Tigers lost on the road to Texas A&M before losing to Alabama at home to cap off the regular season. Despite having won the regular season title, the losses left a bad taste in the mouth at the end of a historic season.
Today begins the post-season run for the Tigers, who once again have something to prove. Here's what folks had to say about the quarterfinal matchup.
Pearl on the team's health, per Auburn Rivals:
"I think everybody is banged up a little bit, but I think we're coming into it pretty healthy, to be honest with you. In a sense that I think Denver is probably, feels a little bit better. Chad probably feels a little bit better. Johni is getting back to 100% so you're right, not to discount any of those injuries, but I do feel like, gosh, we could be in a lot worse shape. We took Sunday off, and we worked Monday, Tuesday, and now here Wednesday, just on us. We've just really been working on us."
Johni Broome on responding to the two losses, per Auburn Undercover:
"You can tell at practice the last couple days how locked in we've been, how guys are putting in the extra effort. Guys are itching to get the extra rep, guys are itching to be on the court and compete. Coach ended practice a little early, but we kept going — just because we feel like we've got something to prove again. We let two games go, and that just fired us back up to give us that edge we've had all season long."
Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard on facing Auburn again, per Auburn Undercover:
"One of if not the best team in college basketball. It's a 40-minute game, so. It's not going to be the better team, it's going to be the better team that played those 40 minutes. I think we would all agree that Auburn is one of the best teams in the country. I think we'd all agree it's a great challenge for us. But it's a 40-minute game. That's what makes March special. We don't have to be better than Auburn, we just got to be better than Auburn for 40 minutes."
The Tigers and the Rebels tip off at noon.