Bruce Pears gets 100% real about Vanderbilt after Auburn basketball's 10th SEC win
02/12/2025 09:54 AM
The Auburn basketball team has a massive game looming this weekend as the top-ranked team in the land will travel to take on #2 Alabama. It’s a rivalry, and it pits the top two teams in college basketball against each other. It’s the game of the year in college basketball. It would’ve been easy for the Tigers to look ahead and slip up in their matchup against Vanderbilt on Tuesday, but they took care of business and won the game 80-68.
Auburn and Alabama both had tricky trap games on Tuesday night, as the Crimson Tide had to play at Texas. Both teams took care of business to set up an epic showdown this weekend. Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl was proud of how his team stayed focused on the task at hand.
“That was a really good win against a really good basketball team,” Bruce Pearl said after the game, according to an article from Sports Illustrated. “Mark’s [Byington] done a tremendous job. I enjoyed our preparation, enjoyed watching his team play the way they’ve played, the way they’ve competed. Out of respect for Vanderbilt and their coaching staff and the way they do things, you could tell that we were ready. You could tell that this game had all of our focus and we got off to a great start. We stopped guarding a little bit there in the first half, and that was an issue.”
This wasn’t a cupcake game for Auburn that was easy to prepare for and win. This Vanderbilt team, like the rest of the SEC, is good. The Tigers went on the road and beat an impressive squad with their biggest game of the season looming.
“Yeah, I mean, it's an unbelievable league,” Pearl said. “He's [Mark Byington] in the upper half of our coaches as far as what kind of coach he is. Offensively, he's got a great mind. I also think he's hired a really good staff. I think they're committed. They're committed in the NIL space, and to go out there and get that roster—if you're not committed in that area, you're not going to survive in this league. I think what Mark's done, his staff has done, and the commitment that Vanderbilt has made to men's basketball and Mark in this program—you're seeing the results. It's worth it to invest in your players like that. Beat Kentucky and beat Tennessee—how big was that?”
Tuesday’s win was a big one and it was impressive, but there are still things that the Auburn basketball team has to do better as the season goes on.
“Our identity, and one of the things that got us off to such a good start I think this year, was we really started to take pride in how we would guard and get stops, turn people over,” Pearl said. “It’s a long season. It’s a grind, and I think that we’ve lost a little bit of that edge. We've got to try to get that edge back.”
With the win, the Auburn basketball team improved to 22-2 overall and now sitting at 10-1 in SEC play. The Tigers are tied for first place in the conference with Alabama, and the two of them will meet up on Saturday in Tuscaloosa.
It’s not often that we see the top two teams in the country meet up during the regular season. It’s really not often that we see those two top teams meet up as rivals tied for first place in the best conference in college basketball. Saturday’s game is going to be a spectacle, and you don’t want to miss it.
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