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Two heavyweight teams from the SEC will clash in a Top 10 showdown from the Yellowhammer State on Saturday night.
No. 1 Auburn is looking to defend its home court as Bruce Pearl faces his old team while No. 6 Tennessee and Rick Barnes aim to steal one on the road in a hostile environment. Auburn has held the nation’s No. 1 ranking over the last two weeks while Tennessee held the top spot for the five weeks before.
One big storyline heading into Saturday’s game is the injury status of Tigers star forward Johni Broome, who currently leads Auburn in points, rebounds, and assists. According to a report from Jeff Goodman via Bruce Pearl on Friday, Broome is a game-time decision for Saturday’s contest with an ankle injury that has kept him off the court since Jan. 11. Broome is a national player of the year candidate through this point in the season.
RTI will bring you live, on-site coverage of the top six clash from Neville Arena on Saturday night in Alabama. Until then, though, check out RTI’s preview for the game below:
More From RTI: Rick Barnes: ‘I Don’t Know If I’d Still Be Doing It’ Without Zakai Zeigler
How To Watch — No. 6 Tennessee (17-2, 4-2 SEC) at No. 1 Auburn (17-1, 5-0 SEC)
- Date: Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025
- Start Time: 8:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. CT
- Location: Neville Arena (Auburn, AL)
- Watch: ESPN
- Online Streaming: Watch ESPN
- Radio (Knoxville): The Vol Network/The Vol Network App
Betting Lines (As of 4:30 p.m. ET on 1/24)
- Spread: Auburn -7.5 (-104)/Tennessee +7.5 (-118)
- Moneyline: Auburn (-310)/Tennessee (+245)
- Total: Over 140.5 (-105)/Under 140.5 (-115)
- Spread: Auburn -6.5 (-110)/Tennessee +6.5 (-110)
- Moneyline: Auburn (-278)/Tennessee (+225)
- Total: Over 141.5 (-110)/Under 141.5 (-110)
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What Tennessee HC Rick Barnes Said About Auburn
On what stands out when he thinks about Tennessee facing Bruce Pearl and Auburn:
“A great coach. He been around the game a long time. Understands how he wants his teams to play, recruits to that type system. And just extremely sound. You look at his record, everywhere he has been, he has been successful. And just the utmost respect for Bruce and the fact that he, again, I think the key to coaching is knowing how you want to play and recruit guys and get them to play that way. And he does that as well as anyone.”
On Auburn not taking a step back the last two games without Johni Broome (ankle):
“Well, I think it speaks to who they are as a team. And the fact that when you’re the No. 1-ranked team, and they’ve been there all year long, and you look at their only loss is at Duke early in the year. And so you’re not going to get to be a No. 1, No. 2, No. 5, any of those teams ranked by one guy alone. You can certainly have a guy that can anchor you down, but you’ve got to be able to withstand some of these type situations through injuries.
“And (Pearl) started the season, I would think that if you ask him, he maybe thinking this might have been one of the deepest teams he’s ever had. And when you start, early in the year, they play 10 guys. You’re prepared for something when you lose someone like Johni.”
On the difficulty in preparing for an Auburn team that has multiple players that can be productive:
“Well, it’s difficult. And we go into every game and you’ll always put up key players that the numbers tell you that you think they play through, but you talk about every player. And we would say that any player in this conference at this level has the ability to do that at any point in time. So we’re not going to overlook anybody on that roster, because we’ve seen them. And it’s not just Auburn, it’s just everybody we play. We’re not going to overlook anybody because we know that if they’re at this level, they’re capable of having a big night.”
On how tough it is to defend an Auburn team with four players shooting 39% or better from the 3-point line:
“Like you would imagine. They’re every spot you got to be. You got to be disciplined, you have to really stick together. And like we’ve said before, we’re not asking one person to guard one guy. We believe in our team defense. But that’s why Auburn’s so good. They shoot the ball as well as anybody in the country. And it takes a lot of focus, takes a lot of discipline and to make sure you stay locked in throughout the possession.”
On the key for Tennessee post players in defending Auburn’s Dylan Cardwell:
“Same thing. I mean they’re big, they’re strong. And it’s always about space. You know, trying to obviously you don’t want them to be able to just do what they want to do. Believe me, they’re going to work as hard as they can to keep us from doing what we want to do and we have to do the same. And whether it’s as a team, but also in all those individual matchups like that, knowing that what they’re trying to do, you’re trying to take it away from them.”
On if it’s more difficult to prepare for Auburn not knowing if Johni Broome will try to play or will be out:
“Not really. We prepare the same. We’ll know. In our league now, I think is it Friday night they send (an injury report). But we’ll prepare, because it’s no different going into a game when you might prepare for somebody to get in foul trouble, they’re gone, you got to be ready for who comes in behind them. And so you go about it the same way.”
On what he has seen from Auburn freshman Tahaad Pettiford:
“High level, high level. Guy that can score the ball. Guy that, if you give him much room, he gets going. And he’s just a high level, highly talented player.”
What Auburn HC Bruce Pearl Said About Tennessee
Opening statement:
“These two teams, Tennessee and Auburn, have been the best two teams in the SEC, at least by winning percentage over the last eight years. I’m proud to be a part of that, and even in some smaller, lesser way, also proud that I was at both Tennessee and helped get that thing going a little bit, and now here at Auburn.
“Have such great respect for Coach (Rick) Barnes and his coaching staff. He’s done an amazing job with that Tennessee team. They play as good a defense as anybody in the country. Their field-goal percentage defense, their three-point defense, they’re one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, and they really shoot it really well from three. They’ve got three or four guys that can really, really knock it down, and it’s a tough cover. Only four teams have scored 70 points or more against them all season long. Like us, they play an incredible schedule and so we’re gonna have to be, you know, at our best.
“Excited about College GameDay being here. We’re the only school in the country that can say — at least at this point — that College GameDay has been on our campus five years in a row in college basketball. Now, if they go back to Duke later on this year. If they go back to Kansas later on this year, they can say the same thing. Still, to be in that company, it speaks to the incredible home-court advantage we have at Neville Arena, the best home-court advantage in college basketball thanks to the Auburn family. We’re excited about having college basketball, ESPN and the College Gameday crew here in Auburn.”
On what it’s like coaching against Rick Barnes, the two coaches knowing what the other likes to do so well:
“Well, it doesn’t actually make it much fun at all because they know us so well and it’s hard to run what you do. Like Coach Barnes, we are who we are, and what we’ve been doing, we’ve been doing it this way for a long, long time. Nobody does it better than Rick Barnes and Tennessee.
“I want to beat Tennessee because they’re one of the best teams in our league, and a team that we need to beat to be able to have a chance to be a champion, but not for any other reason. It’s no fun going up against a friend.”
On the challenges of defending Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler:
“He’s one of the leading assist guys in the country and he’s a brilliant passer. He’s already set the all-time record for Tennessee in steals, and he’s been the face of that program for a long, long time. In many ways, they go as he goes and he always goes pretty well. He’s a great three-point shooter with a great percentage and he’s hard to stay in front of. So obviously, so much of what you have to do, you got to gameplan for Zakai Zeigler. He will go down as one of the all-time greats in the history of Tennessee basketball.”
On what he’s seen out of Tennessee’s defense this season:
“Well, it’ll make it harder to score because you can throw the ball in to Johni and you can get buckets, and you can play inside-out basketball if they double. Obviously, you don’t have that. You got to find other ways to score.
“They have a system of defense where they’re able to guard everything. They do it with great ball pressure, they do it by extending catches, they do it with athleticism, they don’t take possessions off. Everything we do will be extremely well scouted and fits within the framework of what they guard. And so it’ll come down to being able to execute and make some tough shots. You’re just not going to get anything easy against Tennessee. They’re very physical offensively, very physical defensively, and you’ve got to be able to handle that physicality on both ends of the floor.”
On if he has spoken with Barnes this week:
“Well Coach Barnes and I will visit more in the offseason. Coaches — at least I don’t — have much interaction with coaches during the season. Every now and then you’ll text somebody after a great win or some kind of historic achievement, but we’ll save the interaction for the offseason.”
On Tennessee fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier:
“He’ll be one of the most impactful transfers in college basketball. Dalton Knecht was last year. Miles Kelly certainly is for us this year. He’s got great size like Dalton, incredibly quick release and he’s made big shots. He’s made contested shots, he can shoot it from three, he’s got a mid-range game. If you’re going to play for Coach Barnes, he’s improved his defense. He is a definite guy that can win games for them. They need him to shoot the ball well and shoot a good percentage. They haven’t lost very often. They’ve only lost a couple of times, and one of the times at Vanderbilt, he still scored pretty well. And then one time at Florida, he didn’t shoot it very well. He’s someone that Coach Barnes trust and they’ve been able to count on.”
Probable Starters
-G Zakai Zeigler
-G Chaz Lanier
-G/F Jahmai Mashack
-F Igor Milicic Jr.
-C Felix Okpara
-G Denver Jones
-G Miles Kelly
-G/F Chad Baker-Mazara
-F Chaney Johnson
-C Dylan Cardwell
*F Johni Broome is reportedly a game-time decision*
Individual Stat Leaders
Tennessee:
Points: Chaz Lanier — 18.4 PPG, 41.6 FG%, 77.6 FT%
Rebounds: Igor Milicic — 8.4 RPG, 6.0 DRPG, 2.4 ORPG
Assists: Zakai Zeigler — 7.6 APG, 3.2 TOPG, 34.1 MPG
Auburn:
Points: Johni Broome — 17.9 PPG, 54.7 FG%, 61.8 FT%
Rebounds: Johni Broome — 10.7 RPG, 7.6 DRPG, 3.1 ORPG
Assists: Johni Broome — 3.3 APG, 1.1 TOPG, 27.4 MPG
*Broome is reportedly a game-time decision for Saturday with an ankle injury*
Last Five Games
Tennessee:
- 68-56 win versus Mississippi State
- 76-75 loss at Vanderbilt
- 74-56 win versus Georgia
- 74-70 win at Texas
- 73-43 loss at Florida
Auburn:
- 70-68 win at Georgia
- 88-66 win versus Mississippi State
- 66-63 win at South Carolina
- 87-82 win at Texas
- 84-68 win versus Missouri
Prediction
Tennessee and Auburn head into a heavyweight, prime-time matchup this Saturday night in Auburn. Two of the nation’s best coaches and teams will stand opposite from one another as Tennessee looks to steal a big one on the road.
The main storyline going into this game is the health of Auburn forward Johni Broome, who has missed two straight games as he deals with a lingering ankle injury from Jan. 11 against South Carolina. Broome being out for the game would give Tennessee a big boost. Make no mistake about it, though, Auburn is still a ferocious team without Broome in the lineup.
Auburn is a strong, veteran-led group playing in front of their home crowd. That’s hard to bet against. Tennessee’s defensive ability could be the difference-maker for the Vols in this matchup but Tennessee really needs its offense to show up, too. Look for Tennessee guard Chaz Lanier to be a big factor in this game after his 23-point showing against Mississippi State last weekend in Knoxville.
Tennessee’s two losses have both come on the road this season with a 30-point blowout to Florida and a one-point loss to Vanderbilt. With the Vols’ recent struggles on the road and the mystery of Broome’s status still looming, I’m picking Auburn to pick up the win at home on Saturday. There’s no shame in losing to the No. 1 team in the nation in late January, but I do expect to see Tennessee give Auburn a run for their money in a competitive game. Tigers pull away in the closing minute.
Auburn 73, Tennessee 66