AUBURN, Ala. – One more dress rehearsal before the curtain rises on the 2025-26 season and the dawn of Auburn basketball’s Steven Pearl era.
The Tigers take on Memphis Thursday at 7:30 p.m. CT in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena, Auburn’s last exhibition before Tipoff on The Plains Monday night at Neville Arena vs. Bethune-Cookman.
“They’ve been good, they’ve been accountable, they’ve been locked in,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said.. “Really excited for another great opportunity against another really good team.”
Thursday’s Memphis matchup comes 15 days after Auburn and Oklahoma State played overtime in Birmingham, a 97-95 defeat that provided Pearl with an abundance of what coaches call teaching tape.
“It’s good for us as coaches to learn about some of the things we’ve got to clean up, get a little more organized with,” he said, “but our players – we get film against two really good teams before we have to play a really good Bethune-Cookman team. It’s huge to be able to learn from. It’s so beneficial for everyone to be able to play against real competition.
“It was great to get exposed. That’s what you want more than anything in these scrimmages is to be exposed and see where some of your weaknesses are and for our goys to see we’ve got some things we’ve got to work on.”
Thursday’s exhibition will be the first of two visits to Atlanta’s NBA venue before SEC play tips off in January. The Tigers will return to the Atlanta Hawks’ home court Dec. 13 to play Chattanooga in Auburn’s annual Holiday Hoopsgiving appearance.
Auburn freshman forward Filip Jovic aspires to compete regularly on NBA courts in future seasons after developing his game on the Plains.
“This is the best decision for me before NBA because my dream is to go to NBA,” Jovic said.
“He’s got phenomenal instincts,” Pearl said. “He understands where the ball is at all times. He picked up on everything we did very quickly. I’ve been really impressed with Filip.”
Thursday’s Tiger tussle will not be broadcast on the Auburn Sports Network but WarEagle+ subscribers can stream the videoboard feed here. Not yet a member. Click here to sign up.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer