There will be no College GameDay set up in Neville Arena. There will be fewer students camping out trying to earn their spot in the Jungle. And, quite frankly, if you weren’t paying attention closely, you might not know that Auburn and Kentucky were facing off tomorrow in basketball.
That’s how this season has gone for both teams, as Steven Pearl has found the transition to head coach difficult with almost an entirely new roster, while Mark Pope and his $22 million squad are about as inconsistent as any team in college basketball. Instead of a matchup of highly ranked teams, Saturday’s battle will be between two teams trying their hardest to stay on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
Auburn enters the matchup as low as any point of the season, losing five straight games, including to Mississippi State on Wednesday night when the Tigers came back from 18 points to lead by as much as seven with four minutes left, only to see that lead disappear in a 91-85 loss.
Asked about the mood in the locker room, Pearl was blunt.
“Yeah, I mean it's not great,” he said. “Everybody's obviously disappointed in the result, but if we can draw from those 15 minutes in the second half, it'll play really well.”
Auburn's NCAA Tournament hopes on the brink of bursting
Disappointed is the perfect word to describe this season, which started with Bruce Pearl’s surprise resignation at the start of fall practice, leaving Auburn, his son, and the players committed to the program in a bad place. A brand new roster sans Tahaad Pettiford faced a gauntlet of a non-conference schedule that would challenge any team, much less one that was still finding its rhythm within itself.
And then there has been the feeling of dysfunction that has led to Pettiford, Keyshawn Hall and others being benched at different times.
So, while Saturday’s matchup against Kentucky isn’t as big a factor in college basketball as it usually is, it is critical for the Tigers to get a win. Otherwise, the bubble could burst.