AUBURN, Ala. – The stakes are high any time you travel on the road in the SEC. The stakes will be a little higher Wednesday night. Not only is it Auburn's first conference road game of the season, it's also the 196th meeting against rival Georgia.
Next Game:
at Georgia
Jan. 4, 2023
5:30 p.m. CT
TV: SEC Network
Radio: Auburn Sports Network
"Rivalry games matter," Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. "When I was at Tennessee, Georgia was a pretty good rival because it was a border state. Obviously here at Auburn, it's a big rivalry game for us."
A year ago, it took a game-winning lay-up from Wendell Green Jr. in the closing seconds to escape Georgia with a road win. The Tigers swept the season series for the first time since 2018-19. This year, however, it's a new Georgia team led by first-year head coach Mike White.
"The more I've watched Georgia, the more impressed I've been with them," Pearl said. "Mike has come in and done a really good job. They've got an older veteran team, a lot of transfers, and they're playing pretty well right now. They're way better than they were a year ago.
"This is an opportunity for us to win on the road, and those are the great separators. You have to win at home, and you've got to get a couple on the road. But this one won't be easy."
Not unlike last year's game in Athens, there will be a heavy contingent of Auburn fans or "witnesses" as Pearl likes to call them in attendance Wednesday night. The Tigers went 6-3 on the road in SEC play last year en route to a regular season conference championship, and the traveling fan base played a major part.
"It's encouraging," Auburn center Dylan Cardwell said. "I'm very grateful for it because we get to go to other schools and show out. It just shows how deep the Auburn Family is, and I'm very appreciative for it. Even when we went to the West Coast, we had a lot of fans over there. Not a lot of colleges in the country travel like that."
No. 22 Auburn and Georgia will tip off at 5:30 p.m. CT from Stegeman Coliseum in Athens. Andy Burcham and Sonny Smith will have the radio call on 93.9 Tiger FM, online at AuburnTigers.com and on the TuneIn app. The game will also be televised on SEC Network with Kevin Fitzgerald and Jon Sundvold on the call. 
PLAYER TO WATCH: JOHNI BROOME
In his SEC debut, sophomore big man Johni Broome extended his double-digit scoring streak to seven games with 14 points in Auburn's win over Florida. He also pulled down 11 rebounds, recording his second double-double of the season and the 37th of his career, and dished out four of the team's 16 assists. As a team, Auburn had 17 offensive rebounds against the Gators. At 3.08 offensive rebounds per game, Broome is tops on the Tigers.
INSIDE THE SERIES: GEORGIA
Auburn leads 99-96 in the all-time series with Georgia and will be looking for win No. 100 in the rivalry on Wednesday night. Last season, the Tigers swept the regular season series with the Bulldogs and won a thriller in Athens on Feb. 5 as point guard Wendell Green Jr. hit the game-winning lay-up with 3.6 seconds left to give Auburn a 74-72 victory.
MAKING HISTORY
Auburn is ranked No. 22 in this week's Associated Press Top 25 Poll, marking the 28th straight week the Tigers have been ranked in the AP Top 25. That's the second-longest stretch in school history. The program record is 31 consecutive weeks from Dec. 14, 1998 to March 13, 2000. Auburn is one of 10 schools to be ranked in the AP Top 25 throughout the 2022 calendar year – one of the goals head coach Bruce Pearls set out for the program.
TWO'S COMPANY
Bruce Pearl (Tennessee and Auburn) and Mike White (Florida and Georgia) are the only two active head coaches in the SEC to coach at two conference schools. Pearl has guided his teams to 10 NCAA Tournament berths (including the 2020 tournament that was cancelled) while White did so five times in seven years with the Gators.