As he opened his press conference on Monday to preview No. 1 Auburn's matchup against Oklahoma, Bruce Pearl made a witty remark, saying, "Once again, we find ourselves where I'm going to be talking up an opponent, and you're going to be rolling your eyes, 'Yeah, yeah.' But I'm going to do it anyway."

No need as the Sooners come to Neville Arena on Tuesday evening winners of three of their last four, including a 30-point blowout of then-No. 24 Vanderbilt on Saturday. As Pearl points out, Porter Moser's squad is 38th in the NET rankings and brings in an explosive offensive team led by Jalon Moore and Jeremiah Fears.

"Fears is a great story," the Auburn coach said. "You talk about Oklahoma's roster turning around in a heartbeat. He is, on the draft boards, a potentially top 10-15 pick. So he's different. Obviously, he's got to be the focal point of any scouting report."

Fears averages 16.1 points per game while leading the Sooners with 4.2 assists per game. Moore, a senior from Birmingham, puts up a team-high 18.2 points and six rebounds per game. If anyone knows how dangerous Moore can be, it is Miles Kelly, who was his teammate at Georgia Tech.

"Really having a great year," Pearl said. "Miles remembered him being a good player, great athlete, but has transferred to Oklahoma and really developed. And again, a really tough cover. Undersized power forward."

Much like Saturday's matchup against Ole Miss, the Tigers are playing after a short turnaround, taking the floor for their third game in six days. That made Pearl cautious about how much to put his players through on Sunday and Monday.

"Yesterday's (Sunday's) practice was short," he said on Monday. "We watched film and lifted. We were on the floor for 30 to 45 minutes, and that was it. We were trying to get fresh, and hopefully the guys come in today that way. We typically don't go hard the day before a game, but we're going to have to today."

Auburn and Oklahoma tip off at 8 p.m. CT, with the game airing on the SEC Network.