Auburn is coming off one of its best wins of the season in an upset of No. 25 Tennessee. But up next, the Tigers travel to Tuscaloosa to take on No. 8 Alabama.

An Alabama team who was just crowned the regular-season SEC champions.

“So even though I know they're our rival and I want to beat them more than I want to beat anybody else, you've got to give credit where credit's due,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Nate's done a phenomenal job. He's a really good coach, one of the best I've gone against.”

One of the biggest keys for Pearl’s squad will be, once again, defense. Defensive issues have plagued the Tigers all season long, but to beat Alabama, Auburn will need to key in on getting stops.

“They're great at home,” Pearl said of Alabama. They score 84 at home. They shoot it really good at home. They shoot it good, period. But they shoot it great at home. They're 18-1 when they score 70 or more; they're 1-5 when they're held under 70. That's got to be something we have to try to do. And we've only done that three times — A&M, Vandy and Kentucky — in our league.”

Auburn won’t be able to key in on any Alabama player, though, with Herbert Jones, Jaden Shackelford, John Petty and Jahvon Quinerly averaging double-figures.

The Crimson Tide are shooting 35.5% from beyond the arc this season, while opposing teams are shooting just 28.7% from deep against them.

Alabama is also second in the SEC in rebounding, and 13th nationally.

“I mean, they just don't have any weaknesses,” Pearl said.

Even with that, and a loss to Alabama earlier in the season, Pearl is taking some positives into the matchup with the Tide.

“For us on the positive side, we've won nine of our last 13 against ranked teams,” Pearl said. “I'm impressed with that. We're 2-2 in our last four visits to Tuscaloosa; that's hard to do. This is probably going to be the hardest one considering how good they are.”

When these two teams first met on Jan. 9, the game marked freshman Sharife Cooper’s collegiate debut after being cleared by the NCAA.

Despite his 26-point performance, Auburn fell 94-90 to Alabama.

This time around, Auburn may be without Cooper who’s nursing a sprained ankle. Pearl says he will travel with the team, but he did not practice on Sunday.

If Cooper was unable to go, junior Jamal Johnson would serve as Auburn's starting point guard for the second-straight game.

Tuesday’s matchup in Coleman Coliseum is set for 6 p.m. CST and available to watch on ESPN2.

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