No, Auburn didn’t grab the top ranking in the polls on Monday, and because I am neither a fan of circuses nor clowns, I won’t go into why some people vote the way they do and why they even have a vote in the first place. Anyway, I did that with a tweet on Monday.
I’m here to talk about targets. In fact, I’m here to talk about large targets, as in the one Auburn basketball currently has on its back going into the rest of conference play and forward. The Tigers’ play, win streak and rise up the rankings has made what once was a tiny target huge, and it is something that these players will have to get used to.
Bruce Pearl admitted that he expects each opponent to play their best against his squad as they start to grab national headlines. He has arguably the best team of his career, the deepest roster and the school’s first-ever No. 1 pick in the NBA draft in Jabari Smith Jr. That’s enough to make any team on the schedule perk up their heads. Add in the feverous fanbase now taking over opposing arenas, the atmosphere in Auburn Arena and those memes – those hilarious, never-ending sources of entertainment memes – and opponents will have their sharpest bows drawn and aimed at taking the Tigers down.
It’s an area that programs such as Kentucky, Duke and Kansas have had for years. Whenever Auburn and the Wildcats met up in the past, the blue-and-white uniforms had the circle enclosing the bullseye on their patches. You can likely count on two hands how many times the Tigers have been favored against Kentucky in the series history, as they will very much likely be on Saturday. That doesn’t mean John Calipari’s side is target-free. No, they are still the standard in this conference, but the rise of Auburn has quickly made this one-sided series into a contentious rivalry.
Smith, who is somehow getting better as the season goes along, has had this sort of thing following him for quite some time now. That’s what happens when you are one of the top recruits in the country and wanted by every school and wanted to be taken down by every other recruit. As he continues to get rave reviews, teams will continue to go at him even harder. But, having a target on you is better than what Auburn basketball has had in the past.
No matter what happens against Georgia or Kentucky, the target on this team will continue to grow to enormous proportions and stay with it until they either fall in the NCAA Tournament or walk away with the program’s first national title. Pearl has said his team has embraced getting the best of its competition, and he will continue to point out that yes, they need to get better and, no, they haven’t achieved anything yet.
A prominent mark is now on every team’s schedule when the word Auburn comes up. If the Tigers can seize that – and they have already shown more than capable of doing it –, opposing arrows will fall flat.
