AUBURN | Two weeks ago Auburn lost by a combined 41 points in road defeats at Alabama and Florida.
Two home wins and a renewed focus on offensive spacing and playmaking has Bruce Pearl hopeful his Tigers are prepared to play much better in Tuesday night’s matchup at Ole Miss.
“I would say probably having gone on the road and getting stung like we did, I think we would be better prepared or understand sort of what it takes as we continually to hopefully learn and grow, and stay together,” Pearl said.
Senior Samir Doughty broke out of a mini-slump last week combining for 29 points in wins over South Carolina and Iowa State. He had just 14 points combined, shooting 5 of 23 (21.7 percent) in the previous two losses.
"We were focusing on those things, focusing on making the extra passes, focusing on finishing around the rim,” Doughty said. “And everybody's going to go through those phases when we're losing games. We lost two games. We didn't get discouraged. We just regrouped and found out what was working for us and tried to improve on those things and stay away from the things that was making us lose the games.”
The Tigers went into the Alabama game undefeated and ranked No. 4 in the country. A precipitous drop had them at No. 16 last week, but even with two home wins, AU dropped another slot Monday to No. 17 in the AP Poll.
Pearl has certainly mentioned that to his team as they prepare for the Rebels.
“You never heard me complain about it once because I have never talked about our ranking much, but you do notice it and so we still have a ton to prove. This is just an opportunity to maintain our ranking,” Pearl said.
Tip-off at The Pavilion is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT on ESPNU.