AUBURN, Ala. – Before No. 16 Auburn hosted Ole Miss at Neville Arena on Jan. 20 in the programs' first meeting when both were ranked in the top 25, Bruce Pearl congratulated first-year Rebels coach Chris Beard on the achievement.
"I said, 'It took me a bunch of years to get here,'" the Auburn coach recalled. "'It took you half a year.'"
Auburn won round one 82-59 on the Plains.
"We just couldn't play any better," Pearl said. "We had a dominating effort. We would do things in that game that we thought would be successful and they were. You play a lot of your cards.
"We played a really good hand, so the question is going to be, what adjustments do we make? What adjustments can we anticipate they're going to make?"
Two weeks later, round two awaits Saturday in a sellout at The Pavilion at Ole Miss, where the Rebels are 13-0 this season.
"What I imagine will be a very tough environment for a number of reasons," Pearl said Friday before his team practiced prior to departing for Oxford. "Ole Miss is playing really well. It should be a great contest.
"We know the things we have to do on the road. We've got to take care of the ball, make shots and continue to improve our rebounding. We do those things and we give ourselves a chance."
Defense and rebounding, Pearl preaches, win championships, a message that resonates with the Tigers.
"We don't want our man to score on us," said Denver Jones, who scored a season-high 19 points Wednesday in Auburn's 81-54 home win over Vanderbilt. "Accepting the challenge. During the summer, BP was concerned about our defense. We accepted the challenge and we've been consistent from there."
Auburn's Johni Broome continues to collect honors like he does rebounds and points in the paint. On Friday, Broome was the only SEC player named to the top 10 for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award for the nation's top center, joining recent program standouts Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler as mid-season semifinalists for national awards.
"Very exclusive company," Pearl said. "Congratulation to Johni, his family and to our team for helping put one of their teammates in that position."
Looking to remain near the front of the SEC pack, No. 16 Auburn (17-4, 6-2) plays at Ole Miss (18-3, 5-3) Saturday at 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network and the Auburn Sports Network, the beginning of a gauntlet that sees the Tigers play eight games against the seven other SEC teams with .500 or better records in conference play.
"This will be as challenging of a 10-game stretch as Auburn basketball has had," Pearl said.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer
