Auburn has one last game.

No matter what happens in Saturday’s game against Mississippi State, Auburn’s season is done.

"I talked to the team yesterday. Going to practice yesterday was different,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Because, it’s just been a long time since I went to practice — God, I can’t even remember the last time when I went to practice when we knew the season was going to be over, because you’re always going to the tournament — and so, it was just different. My word for it with the team was ‘different.’ Some of the guys had different words, you know? But we’ve managed to continue to come to practice and try to lock in and find ways and gameplan and grind. I hope we can do that again tomorrow.”

After the game was originally scheduled to be played earlier in the season, weather forced a postponement to Saturday.

Saturday’s matchup will become even more difficult with Sharife Cooper, Auburn’s best player and leading scorer, doubtful for Saturday’s game.

“ I guess I would just call it doubtful, but it's possible,” Pearl said of Cooper’s status. While Mississippi State is currently on the outside looking in for the NCAA Tournament, Pearl isn’t underselling the Bulldogs.

“So, really good defensive team. Great rebounding team,” Pearl said about Mississippi State. “They’ve got a couple of interesting dynamics. They’ve got the two great guards in [Iverson] Molinar and [D.J.] Stewart who are fifth and sixth or so in the league in scoring. And they’ve got two frontline guys in [Abdul] Ado and [Tolu] Smith, who together, physically rebounding, blocking shots, are the most imposing, sort of frontline.”

Auburn has also reached the end of the season, without any positive COVID-19 tests for the team since July 4, 2020.

Something that Pearl is proud of.

“I do think it speaks a lot just to frontline workers and the caregivers on the medical side, as well as the people at the university that work on educating our kids and giving these students, and in this case these student-athletes, the opportunity,” Pearl said. “Our kids did a good job of staying socially distant, of masking up, of making sure they took care of their hygiene and washing their hands, and doing the things they needed to do—and yes, there were things that they had to sacrifice in order to stay COVID-free.”

Auburn and Mississippi State will face off on Saturday at noon CST, with the game broadcasted on SEC Network.

NOT A MEMBER?

JOIN AUBURNSPORTS.COM TODAY to enjoy around-the-clock content including stories, analysis, videos, podcasts, call-in shows and The Greatest Message Board In The History of The Internet.