It has been a historic season for head coach Bruce Pearl and Auburn basketball, who have arguably the best resume in all of college basketball as the season comes to a close.
Auburn basketball has been ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for seven weeks straight and has been the unanimous No. 1 for several of those weeks. The Tigers boast a 25-2 overall record, with losses only to Duke and Florida, who are ranked just below Auburn in the polls. The team has dropped only one conference game so far to Florida and won 13.
As the regular season winds down, the Tigers are drawing closer to winning a regular-season SEC championship for the third time in seven seasons. If they win three of the remaining four games, they win the title outright. They will clinch a share if they win two and will likely share with Alabama and/or Florida.
While it will be remembered as a great season no matter what, Pearl's squad knows that the job isn't finished— the goal is to win it all. The team knows that while a ring is on the line next month, there are four challenging games standing between the Tigers and the SEC tournament.
“Every game is challenging but what we have in the locker room is we’re competing for a championship,” said Dylan Cardwell, per Auburn Rivals. “If we drop one of these games, we shoot ourselves in the foot, per se, for an SEC Championship.
“So these games might mean a lot to these other teams, but they mean just as much to us. It’s tough playing against teams that have extra motivation, like, ‘Hey, our postseason depends on this.’ But a ring depends on it for us.”
Auburn basketball returns to action tomorrow against Ole Miss in Neville Arena and will play Kentucky, Texas A&M, and Alabama to end the season.