Auburn basketball has reached the tail end of its season.

No matter what — because of the self-imposed postseason ban — only nine games remain for the Tigers.

That’s why, for a young roster, finishing those last nine games strong is so important and the goal moving forward.

“The mentality is to win the next nine games to try to finish first or second in the league,” Auburn sophomore Jaylin Williams said after the loss to Baylor. “I know when we went to Georgia, we beat them over there. Most guys might be like, 'OK, maybe we've got them.' But it's not going to be easy. We've got to be ready for that. I think we've got Ole Miss on Saturday, and we're going to want to play really hard for that game, because the first one didn't go so well for us. We'll be ready.”

As Williams noted, Georgia is up first as Auburn gets back into SEC play.

The two met earlier in the season, with Auburn defeating Georgia 95-77 in Athens. The game was just the second of Sharife Cooper’s career and his 28 points and 12 assists helped the Tigers topple the Bulldogs.

At the time, both programs were searching for their first SEC wins.

But since that point, Auburn is 3-1 in SEC play and Georgia is 3-2 in SEC play.

“They play really hard. They play really, very aggressively,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “So, this is an improved Georgia team and it’s hard to beat a good team twice, it is. They’re probably just excited about the fact that the scores 0-0 because we got away from them a little there. Remind my guys it was a three-point game with about three minutes left to go in the first half and they started off on a 7-0 run to start the second half and we only had a four-point lead at that point.”

Auburn’s coming off a loss at No. 2 Baylor which boasts one of the top backcourts in the country.

Pearl believes it won’t get much easier facing Georgia’s backcourt.

“And they’ve got two terrific guards in [Sahvier] Wheeler and K.D. Johnson,” Pearl said. “We struggled against a great backcourt in Baylor, and we’re going to be playing a great backcourt again in Georgia. Baylor’s backcourt gets a lot more attention, Baylor’s backcourt is defensively elite, but Georgia’s backcourt offensively is as good as there is; that combination of any three guards in the league. You know, between [Justin] Keir, K.D and Wheeler.”

Auburn will be without the services of Justin Powell as he continues to recover from a concussion suffered against Texas A&M.

Auburn and Georgia tip inside Auburn Arena at 6 p.m. CST. The game is available to watch on SEC Network.

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