Auburn Tigers basketball is set to open its SEC schedule against the Missouri Tigers. Coach Bruce Pearl acknowledges Missouri's hunger for a conference win and their defensive prowess. Pearl emphasizes the importance of clean defense for Auburn to secure a victory.
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. 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“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
Auburn Tigers Missouri Tigers SEC Basketball Bruce Pearl Dennis Gates
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