It was another rough football season on The Plains for the Auburn Tigers, but it’s not all bad across the athletic department as a whole.
Tiger fans can take comfort in the fact that as things continue to try to be figured out in the fall on the gridiron, they have one of the best basketball teams in the entire country ahead of the beginning of SEC play in the new year.
Currently ranked No. 2 in the AP Poll behind fellow SEC program Tennessee, this might be the best team that Bruce Pearl has ever had. The SEC as a whole is as deep as its been in a long time, with Tennessee and Auburn ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, Alabama ranked No. 5, Florida ranked No. 6, and Kentucky ranked No. 10. The conference has three of the top-five teams, five of the top-ten, seven of the top-15, and ten of the top-25.
And as deep as the conference is, Auburn just might be the best out of all of them. With a record of 11-1, Auburn’s only loss of the season came in a road game against another one of the best teams in the nation in Duke, also one of the most hostile places to play in the sport.
With marquee wins over No. 3 Iowa State, No. 15 Houston as well as a dismantling of Purdue over the weekend in Birmingham, Pearl’s team is building quite the resume.
Led by a sensational campaign thus far from Johni Broome who leads the team in points, rebounds, assists, and blocks, Broome is putting together a strong resume to be the national player of the year.
Chad Baker-Mazara, Tahaad Pettiford, Denver Jones, and Chaney Johnson are all having strong years as well.
The Tigers will be off for Christmas week and will return on Monday, Dec. 30 for one more non-conference game against Georgia State before they open SEC play on Saturday, Jan. 4 with a home game against the Missouri Tigers.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
