Challenging road begins Friday

AUBURN | Bruce Pearl wanted to challenge his team before the start of SEC play and he’s done that with a very competitive non-conference schedule.

“I’ve always believed that you schedule where you want your program to be regardless of whether it is ready or not,” Pearl said. “This is one of the toughest non-conference schedules in college basketball and our program will be challenged.

“But, if we can manage to win a couple of games that we are not supposed to and grind out a few others, we could put our program in position to go someplace we haven’t gone in a long time, and that is postseason.”

Pearl’s third season at Auburn begins Friday with a home matchup against North Florida, a team that has won back-to-back Atlantic Sun Championships and played in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.

But the biggest tests come on the road.

Auburn will play Texas Tech and either Purdue or Utah State on Nov. 22-23 in the Cancun Challenge. The Tigers play at UAB Dec. 3, Boston College on Dec. 12 in Madison Square Garden, Oklahoma in Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on Dec. 21 and at Connecticut Dec. 23.

“It gives us a lot of fuel because everybody is kind of counting us out. Those games are going to be good to kind of show people don't count us out yet,” freshman Mustapha Heron said. “It's going to prepare us well because those are good teams, physical teams. They're going to prepare us well for conference play.”

Auburn also plays in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge for the fourth consecutive season when it plays at TCU on Jan. 28. Home non-conference opponents include Georgia State, Eastern Kentucky, USC-Upstate, Coastal Carolina and Mercer.

Auburn’s strength of schedule last season was No. 21.

“Historically our RPI hasn’t been very strong so we aren’t an attractive opponent. We believe times are changing,” Pearl said. “To be able to get a program like UConn back in our building in 2017, we think we have a chance to be a pretty good team. It gives us an opportunity to build our resume.

“In the last couple of years, we have played Xavier, Colorado and Oklahoma State at home and that’s one of the things in developing a program is to develop your schedule, challenge your players and bring quality opponents into your own building.”

Auburn’s 2016-17 non-conference schedule

Fri. Nov. 11 North Florida

Mon. Nov. 14 (1) Georgia State

Thur. Nov. 17 (1) Eastern Kentucky

Tue. Nov. 22 (2) Texas Tech (CBS Sports Network)

Wed. Nov. 23 (2) Purdue/Utah State (CBS Sports Network)

Tue. Nov. 29 USC-Upstate

Sat. Dec. 3 at UAB

Mon. Dec. 12 (3) Boston College

Thur. Dec. 15 Coastal Carolina

Sun. Dec. 18 Mercer

Wed. Dec. 21 (4) Oklahoma

Fri. Dec. 23 at UConn

Thu. Dec. 29 Georgia (SEC home opener)

Sat. Jan. 28 (5) at TCU

(1) Cancun Challenge (Auburn, AL)

(2) Cancun Challenge (Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, Cancun, Mexico)

(3) Under Armour Reunion (Madison Square Garden, New York, NY)

(4) Hall of Fame’s Birthday of Basketball (Sun Arena, Uncasville, CT)

(5) SEC/Big 12 Challenge (Fort Worth, TX)