AUBURN | Bruce Pearl doesn’t mind a preseason loss, especially on the road against a ranked team.

He likes for his teams to deal with adversity, for their weaknesses to be exposed before a grueling conferenced schedule begins.

Such was the case Wednesday night at No. 9 Duke, which held on to beat No. 2 Auburn 84-78.

One of Pearl’s biggest concerns coming out of the matchup was the Tigers’ transition defense. The Blue Devils held a 16-0 advantage in fast-break points.

“I think our transition defense let us down,” said Pearl, who added that Duke was also more physical offensively, getting to the foul line more than twice as much as Auburn.

Pearl said AU’s problems with transition defense started out at the other end of the floor.

“I think sometimes what happened in transition defense would be this: Dylan would go for an offensive rebound and get knocked down and be on the floor, it's 5-on-4,” said Pearl. “Or, one of our guards would go in there, play off one foot, throwing something up have it get blocked, it's 5-on-4. Or you drive in there and you get on the floor yourself, it's 5-on-4.

“So most of the transition was truly 5-on-4 because it has something to do with how we did not execute offensively. And then I think the only other thing I would say would be our guards did not do a great job of stopping the ball -- and then fanning out and finding the shooters.”

Pearl will get a first-look at what he hopes will be an improved transition defense Sunday morning against Richmond, the defending Atlantic 10 co-champions.

The Spiders, 4-4 on the season, are led by senior guard DeLonnie Hunt, who is averaging 20.0 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.9 steals per game. He’s

“Coach (Chris) Mooney, he didn’t invent the five-out, Princeton stuff, but he probably runs it as well as anybody,” said Pearl. “It’s a great, great game for us because nobody will run five-out better. We run some five-out. Nobody will run it better than Richmond and the way he does it.

“They’ve got a great, great guard that is one of the leading scorers, Hunt, in the country. Real quick, real fast, hard to stay in front of. Does a great job of getting to the foul line.”

Tip-off at Neville Arena is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on SEC Network. It’s part of a doubleheader that includes the women’s team hosting UAB at 2 p.m. CT. The arena will not be cleared and fans can stay to watch both games.

It’s also Auburn’s annual Public Safety Toy Drive and presents for children ages 2-14 can be dropped off at the entrance.