It doesn’t get any easier for Auburn basketball as they prepare for Ole Miss on Wednesday.

Similar to Auburn’s last opponent Texas A&M, the Rebels are a strong defensive team, with opposing teams averaging just 60.1 points per game against them.

They also focus on forcing turnovers, something the Auburn offense has done a lot of this year.

“The challenge with Ole Miss is defensively, they do a great job of turning people over. And they're 12th in the country at forcing turnovers at 19 turnovers a game,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “And, as you guys know, turning the basketball over has been a challenge for us against everybody. And that's probably as big a reason as why we've lost the last couple of games in league play is because we've not been able to take care of the basketball. And, historically, we've turned it over more against Ole Miss because of their changing defenses, their 1-3-1. They do a nice job, obviously, do a nice job with that.”

While Ole Miss has forced an average of 19.3 turnovers per game, Auburn has turned the ball over 17 times per game.

Pearl knows this is an area his team needs to shore up, or at least improve upon to beat Ole Miss.

“And so, again, it will require some good team defense. I think the other thing too is turnovers. If you turn the ball over, they come down the other [way] and they score in transition,” Pearl said about what it’ll take to beat Ole Miss. “That's how Ole Miss beat us a couple years ago, and that's how they'll beat us at Ole Miss if we continue to turn the basketball over.”

Ole Miss — quite opposite of Auburn — are one of the most experienced teams in the country.

“They've got an old team. It is, by minutes played, they're the most experienced team in the country, which is crazy,” Pearl said. Or, certainly in our league. A lot of transfers. Romello White transferred from Arizona State. [Jarkel] Joiner transferred from Bakersfield. [Robert] Allen transferred from Samford and [Dimencio] Vaugn transferred from Rider. All graduate transfers. And so, obviously, they're putting things together.”

The Rebels will look to focus their scoring attack inside with the likes of Romello White and KJ Buffen who are the team's second- and third-leading scorers behind Devontae Shuler.

As a team, scoring in the paint has been the key to victory for Ole Miss as they shoot just 28% from beyond-the-arc.

Auburn (6-4, 0-2 SEC) tips off against Ole Miss (5-3, 0-1 SEC) on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. CST with the broadcast on SEC Network.

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