AUBURN, Ala. – The challenge Auburn faces, says junior guard Kevin Overton, is to maintain the sense of desperation that helped the Tigers overcome a 1-3 SEC start.
“Not being satisfied,” Overton said. “Keeping the same approach that we had, and that we were desperate. You can remember how you felt when you were 1-3.”
That shoulder chip has fueled Auburn to three straight Southeastern Conference victories, including a 2-0 road trip last week that featured Saturday’s seismic win over defending national champion No. 16 Florida.
“We can’t let success change us. We’ve got to stay consistent with everything we’ve been doing,” said Auburn coach Steven Pearl, whose team followed Tuesday’s 78-66 victory at Ole Miss with Saturday’s 76-67 triumph in Gainesville. “Those are two tough places to play. To do it in two hostile environments shows that there’s been progress made, but what do we do from here?
“If we let this thing get to our heads and we don’t great ready for Texas – we’ve got to keep that chip on our shoulder. We’ve got to have our backs against the walls. That’s the only way we can play well. That’s what we have to do to beat this team.”
Texas comes to the Plains with four ranked wins over No. 23 NC State, No. 13 Alabama, No. 10 Vanderbilt and No. 21 Georgia.
“They’re the most dangerous team in our league” Pearl said. “We’ve got to stay locked into what we’re doing and continue to play hungry.”
Leading scorer Dailyn Swain (16.9) is one of four Longhorns averaging 13 or more points per game.
“They’ve got four phenomenal players who are going to do a lot of really good things for them,” Pearl said. “It’s been keeping me up at night because they’re probably the most talented team from a guard standpoint that we’ve played up to this point.”
“Every game I try to put myself in the mindset of we have to win the guard matchup,” said Overton, who leads Auburn with 31 steals. “Not necessarily by outscoring or outplaying. For me, it’s defense. If we can lock down those guards, I think that changes everything in the game. My approach especially to this next game is stopping who we need to stop.”
Pursuing its fourth straight SEC win, Auburn (13-7, 4-3) hosts Texas (12-8, 3-4) Wednesday at 6 p.m. CT at Neville Arena on ESPN2 in the Rumble in the Jungle, featuring free foam tiger paws for Auburn University students. Andy Burcham and Randall Dickey will describe the action for listeners on the Auburn Sports Network.
“If this team can continue to get better every single week, this team has a chance,” Pearl said. “This team has done that for the most part, especially since we got back from Christmas. We’ve had really good practices every single day. We’ve stayed consistent with our preparation and our routine leading up to games.”
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer