AUBURN | Saturday’s game against Memphis will be Auburn’s first in eight days since playing South Alabama Dec. 4.

Bruce Pearl always tries to schedule a week off during finals, but that doesn’t mean his Tigers weren’t putting in the work on the court.

“There’s no way you can duplicate Memphis’ pressure and ball pressure unless you play against yourself,” Pearl said. “So we tried to play against ourselves a little bit this week and I think that was the best way for us to get ready to play. We had a lot more contact this week scrimmaging ourselves than what a more veteran team would have, and I think we came out of it OK.”

Pearl considers the contact practices a risk he has to take for a young team that currently includes four true freshmen and five sophomores in the playing rotation. They’ll be facing a Memphis team that is holding opponents to 63.3 points and forcing 18.5 turnovers per game, which ranks 32nd nationally.

“When you hit, that’s when you run the risk of a turning an ankle, being out for three weeks, and we’re already short-handed at some positions,” said Pearl. “So you kind of tape them up and you hold your breath. But if we don’t have these contact practices and we don’t learn from our success and mistakes by scrimmaging and playing, then we’re not going to get better fast enough to win games.

"There’s so little experience as far as guys having played a lot last year. My freshmen all play like it.”

The Tigers, 2-2 on the season, play Memphis Saturday afternoon at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU.