NCAA: Auburn Fixed by New QB?
Whether it be in Knoxville, in Auburn, or at a neutral site, the Tennessee Volunteers have struggled to find a win against Auburn on the basketball court recently.
In fact, Auburn has pretty much owned Tennessee on the hardwood.
That’s not to say that there haven’t been any close games between the two, because there certainly has. But at the end of the day, Auburn has won six-straight basketball games against Tennessee over the course of the last four years.
Of those six meetings, three were in Auburn, two were in Knoxville, and one was during the SEC Tournament in Nashville. In addition, during those games, it would either end up as a close victory for Auburn (within ten points) or a 20+ point beatdown from the Tigers.
Tennessee/Auburn: Rick Barnes Provides Update on John Fulkerson’s Injury Status
“They’re good,” Barnes said on Friday when asked about why Auburn has been able to give Tennessee trouble recently. “Bruce [Pearl] does a really nice job of coaching his team. He knows how he wants to play. Again, he’s done a terrific job with his program and building his program. They’re a good basketball team. They’ve done well. You go back and look at where they’ve been in the last couple of years and how they’re doing things. They’re good. I don’t know what else to say. They have worked hard to get the program where they want it and he’s done a terrific job with it.”
Additionally, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl also spoke on the same topic during his press conference on Thursday.
“I sort of go back to 2019 when Tennessee was right there as one of the very best teams in the country,” Pearl said after being asked about Auburn’s six-game win streak over the Vols. “I felt like us (Auburn), Tennessee, and Kentucky, the year we got to the Final Four, were three teams that could have all gotten to the Final Four. They put Kentucky and us in the same region and Tennessee lost a heartbreaker to, I think, Purdue. And then I think Virginia upset Purdue if I’m right. So we’ve seen Final Four caliber Tennessee teams before and this is certainly, I think, one of them.”
As things stand here on Friday afternoon, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index is throwing the record book straight out of the window and into the Tennessee River. ESPN’s BPI is currently giving Tennessee a 72 percent chance to win this game on Saturday against Auburn.
Whew.
It should be a good one in Knoxville on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. ET when the No. 17 Tennessee Volunteers host No. 3 Auburn in a Top 25 showdown. The game’s broadcast will be on ESPN.
