AUBURN | It was true last week when Auburn was ranked No. 16.

And as far as Bruce Pearl is concerned, it’s even truer this week with the Tigers moving up to No. 13.

“We’re probably going to continue to move in the rankings because it’s conference play and people are going to lose,” said Pearl “I don’t think we’re the 16th-best team in the country right now. I think there are more than 16 teams better than we are.

“We are better than what they thought but we’re not as good as they now think we are.”

Auburn has won nine consecutive games including a 3-0 start to conference play. But none of those wins have come against ranked teams.

The schedule is about to turn a little tougher with Wednesday night’s game at Vanderbilt, where AU is 18-51, Saturday at home against No. 22 Ole Miss, which will mark the return of Wes and Allen Flanigan, and next Wednesday’s trip to Alabama, which was a preseason top 25 team.

“A lot of it has to do with just the schedule and where they fall,” said Pearl. “So we’ve just got to keep taking it one at a time and gameplan and stay humble and stay hungry.”

Pearl has made sure his players get that message and don’t let their success or rise in the rankings lead to a loss of focus.

“Not too high, not too low. I mean, just understanding that we’re a good team, but we’ve got a long ways to go,” said sophomore guard Tre Donaldson. “We had a spurt the other night where we just had a dry spell. Just continuing not having those, obviously. And just continuing to grow. I mean, yeah, we’re playing good basketball right now. But we could be so much better just cleaning up the little things.

“But BP told us not too high, not too low. And right now we haven’t lost, like you said, we’re at nine in a row. I mean, right now we’re high. But we can’t be too high and we can’t get too low.”

Tip-off at Memorial Gymnasium is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network.