After playing 13 non-conference games to tune up – and winning 12 of them – the No. 2 Auburn Tigers shift focus to a daunting SEC slate. Missouri is the first conference opponent that Auburn will take on in the 2024-25 campaign.

After going 8-24 last season, head coach Dennis Gates has Missouri trending in the right direction in his third year at the helm of the program. Missouri is 11-2, falling only to Memphis and Illinois by eight points in each game. It’s statement so far this season has been a 76-67 win over then-ranked No. 1 Kansas. So, where Auburn stands in the rankings isn’t going to deter them. 

“A team like Missouri is hungry,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Missouri is looking for its first conference win a while. I want to tell you, Dennis Gates’ team last year — in all my years of coaching, I have never seen a team that struggled to win in conference that played as hard and as well and as together as Dennis Gates’ Missouri team did a year ago. 

Pearl said that what Auburn needs to do in order to have a positive start to SEC play is to play clean defense and not give the opponent more opportunities. 

“So we’ve got to continue to do a better job of doing something that we haven’t done as well before: Defending aggressively without fouling,” Pearl said. “There’s a noticeable difference in us not bailing out our opponent and putting them on the line. That’s going to be challenged tomorrow, because of how well Missouri shoots it from two.”

Missouri forces turnovers at a high rate. Its opponents have averaged 16 per game which places it at No. 15 nationally and No. 3 in the SEC behind Ole Miss and Vanderbilt according to Teamrankings.com.

“They’ll challenge it,” Pearl said. “They’re going to turn us over. They’re going to press up on the ball. They’re going to make our catches difficult. They’re going to guard, they’re going to play 10 guys double-digit minutes. They score 41 off their bench. So we’re not going to wear them out.”

One of Auburn’s biggest weapons is its depth and that was the aspect that set the team apart during the rigorous non-conference portion of its schedule. Auburn averages 31.69 bench points per game which places it at No. 30 nationally and No. 6 in the SEC, according to NCAA.com. Missouri, however, leads the nation in bench points, averaging 41.38 per game. 

This will be Auburn’s first time going up against a team that has arguably as much depth as it does. 

“I would say that Missouri is one of the toughest matchup preps because of their depth, because of the multiplicity of their defenses, because of how effective they are offensively,” Pearl said.

As of now, this is one of 14 games Auburn will play against conference opponents who are ranked or receiving votes in the AP Poll. Auburn could end up playing 20 such games this season factoring in its non-conference slate.

Tip-off is set for 3 p.m. CST. The broadcast can be found on SEC Network.

» No. 2-ranked Auburn (12-1) rings in the New Year as the SEC gauntlet begins with a hungry Missouri (11-2) squad presenting the first conference test on Saturday at Neville Arena.

» After enduring the toughest non-conference slate in program history, the Tigers prepare for what could be the toughest conference season in college basketball history. All 16 SEC teams enter league play with double-digit wins including the only three remaining undefeated teams in NCAA Division I: Florida (13-0), Oklahoma (13-0) and Tennessee (13-0).

» With a win on Saturday, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl can tie Joel Eaves for the most career coaching victories in program history (213). One of the deans of the SEC with 17 years combined at Tennessee (6 seasons) and Auburn (11 seasons), Pearl currently ranks No. 11 among active NCAA Division I head coaches in career wins (674) and is tied for No. 43 all-time with Lon Kruger.

» Auburn has compiled an all-time record of 660-775 (.460) against SEC competition including a 90-83 mark under Coach Pearl.

» AU is 42-49 all-time in SEC openers since the league’s first season in 1932-33. The Tigers have won three-straight SEC openers after defeating Arkansas on the road, 83-51, in last year’s SEC opener.

» Auburn remains No. 1 in the latest KenPom rankings, but No. 2 in the last five consecutive weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll.

» Since the 2016-17 season, the Tigers boast the best win percentage (.861) against non-conference opponents among SEC schools with a 93-15 overall record. They closed out non-conference play with an 87-58 victory over Monmouth to extend the program’s win streak to 60 consecutive games against non-conference foes at home.

» The Tigers have sold out the last 61-straight home games at Neville Arena (9,121) and are 51-3 overall in the venue over the last four seasons: 2021-22 (16-0), 2022-23 (14-2), 2023-24 (15-1) and 2024-25 (6-0).

MISSOURI AT-A-GLANCE

» Missouri upset then No.1 Kansas, 76-67, in Columbia on Dec. 8. The Tigers’ only losses were an 8-point loss at Memphis and 3-point neutral-site loss to Illinois.

» Mizzou has already won three more games than it won all of last season.

» The Tigers lead the country averaging 21.2 made free throws and is second averaging 29.2 free throw attempts per game. They are also ninth nationally shooting 50.9 percent from the floor.

» Missouri leads the country averaging 41.38 bench points per game and is 10th in scoring offense (87.3 ppg). Auburn boasts the fifth-best scoring offense (88.3).

» Mizzou is No. 8 nationally averaging 10.3 steals per game.

» The Tigers have four players scoring in double figures. They are led by Mark Mitchell (a junior transfer from Duke), who is averaging 13.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest.

AUBURN IN SEC OPENERS

» Auburn is 42-49 all-time in SEC openers since the league’s first season in 1932-33. The Tigers have won three-straight SEC openers. They are 22-18 when opening league play at home.

» Under Bruce Pearl, the Tigers are 6-4 in SEC openers including 3-2 when opening conference play at home. This is the first time Auburn has opened SEC play against Missouri.

INSIDE THE SERIES

» Auburn leads 8-6 in the all-time series with Missouri. The Tigers are winners of the last four-straight meetings between the two schools including a 101-74 road victory on March 5, 2024 in Columbia, Mo.

» Three of the Tigers’ wins during their current four-game winning streak over Mizzou have come by at least 23 points and the four wins have come by an average of 21.0 points. The Tigers lead 3-1 in Auburn, including 3-0 under Pearl, with all four games played at Neville Arena.

» Coach Pearl is 8-5 against Missouri in his head coaching career, including 8-4 while coaching Auburn and 0-1 at Southern Indiana after a 77-62 loss in Columbia, Mo., during the 1992-93 season, his first year at Southern Indiana. He is 4-0 against Missouri at Neville Arena.

» In head-to-head career matchups with Missouri head coach Dennis Gates, Coach Pearl is 2-0 with both games coming in matchups between Auburn and Missouri. AU won 89-56 at home in 2023 and 101-74 in Columbia last season.

SETTING THE STANDARD IN THE SEC

» Auburn’s streak of three consecutive seasons with double-digit SEC wins is tied with Kentucky for the second-longest active streak in the conference, just one behind Tennessee.

» The Tigers’ six seasons with at least 10 SEC wins over the last seven seasons are tied with the Wildcats and Volunteers for the most in the league over that period.

» Kentucky (87), Tennessee (86) and Auburn (81) are the only teams that have won 80 SEC games over the last seven seasons.

SIDEBARS

» Freshman Jahki Howard (City Reapers) will reunite with former Overtime Elite alum Peyton Marshall (RWE), who is a 7-foot freshman center for Missouri. Howard was a featured cast member in Season 1 of the Amazon Prime six-part docuseries “One Shot: Overtime Elite.”

» Missouri Associate Head Coach Charlton “C.Y.” Young is the father of Auburn women’s basketball redshirt sophomore guard Audia Young. He also served as a former men’s basketball assistant coach on The Plains during the 1996-97 and 2000-04 seasons. His wife, Carolyn Jones-Young (1988-91), was a is a two-time All-American and 1991 SEC Player of the Year who led Auburn to a pair of Final Four appearances. She was also a member of the 1992 United States Olympic Bronze Medal National Team and played for the Portland Fire of the WNBA. Her No. 21 jersey is retired in the rafters of Neville Arena.

PLAYER TO WATCH: DYLAN CARDWELL

» Graduate senior center Dylan Cardwell recorded his first career double-double with 12 points and career-high 11 rebounds against Monmouth on Dec. 30. He claimed his 100th career win in an Auburn uniform in a school-record 141 career games played.

» Cardwell currently forms one of the most dominant front courts in the country with All-American teammate Johni Broome. He is one of four players who has started and played in every game this season and is averaging a career-best 6.2 points and 4.6 rebounds per contest.

» Both Cardwell and Broome registered a double-double against Monmouth. They become the first Auburn players to record a double-double in the same game since Broome (19 points and 12 rebounds) and Allen Flanigan (10 points and 10 rebounds) did so against Iowa in the 2023 NCAA Tournament First Round.

» “Mr. Auburn” is 13 wins away from tying Jaylin Williams – the all-time winningest player in program history.