AUBURN | Off to a 21-2 start, in a three-way tie with Kentucky and LSU for first place in the SEC and currently projected as a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament — things are looking pretty good for No. 11 Auburn right now.

But if you dig a little deeper, the Tigers have some warts on that resume that Bruce Pearl isn’t afraid to point out. KenPom rates AU with the nation’s best Luck rating (+.184), which measures the deviation between a team’s actual winning percentage and what would be expected from its game-by-game efficiencies.

“Gosh, to have our record right now with that statistic breakdown, just doesn’t make any sense other than to give the team credit for how hard they’re fighting and how they’re able to manage to win close games,” said Pearl, AU’s sixth-year head coach.

“The problem is we’re in all these close games because we’re just not that much better than our opponents … I continue to say, if we don’t get better we’re going to start losing, you know? Certainly, the last couple of games in overtime could have easily been losses and we could easily be sitting here at 6-4 as we could 8-2.”

In the last four games, Auburn has rallied from a 19-point deficit to beat Ole Miss 83-82 in double overtime, a 7-point deficit to beat No. 13 Kentucky 75-66, an 11-point deficit to beat Arkansas 79-76 in overtime and a 15-point deficit to beat No. 18 LSU 91-90 in overtime.

Wednesday night the Tigers host Alabama, a team that beat Auburn 83-64 in Tuscaloosa four weeks ago. AU’s final eight regular season games include four at home and four on the road.

Pearl has identified several important areas for the Tigers to improve if they’re going to be in position to win their second regular season SEC Championship in the last three years. KenPom currently ranks AU 52nd in the country in defensive efficiency and 29th in offensive efficiency.

“I'd like to defend better and get more stops and not allow so many direct line drives to the basket,” Pearl said. “I think we're fourth in the league in giving up the number of three-pointers, and just we've got a lot of work to do there. And we're working on some things.

“And then probably offensive efficiency. I'd like to do a better job on the break. Because we're such a good rebounding team, we should have a better percentage of what we can do on the break. We've got to advance past the ball a little bit more. And then when the break's not there, run a better offense and get some better looks. Mix up our inside-outside stuff.”

Tip-off at Auburn Arena is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2.