Coming off its second consecutive win, Auburn travels to Gainesville on Saturday to face No. 16 Florida at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center, seeking to snap a drought that spans three decades.
The defending national champion Gators have won nine of their last 10 games, including five straight.
“Another great opportunity against another great team,” said Auburn head coach Steven Pearl. "We seem to be catching teams at their best. Florida is playing really good basketball. They’ve won five straight. It’s the best team in our league by a pretty significant margin.”
Florida is led by forward Thomas Haugh, who averages 16.9 points per game, and is one of five Gators scoring in double figures.
“He leads the country in playing hard. He leads the country in multiple effort plays,” Pearl said of Haugh. “So impactful in a 40-minute game.”
Haugh is just one of several imposing figures in Florida’s frontcourt. The Gators lead the nation in rebounding with 46.5 per game and boast five rotational players listed as 6-foot-9 or taller.
Auburn has out-rebounded five of its six SEC opponents, including Missouri, which KenPom ranks as the seventh-tallest team nationally. The Tigers are coming off their largest rebounding margin of the season at plus-16. Though Saturday will be no easy task for Auburn.
“It’s a team that’s got unbelievable size,” Pearl said. “One of the most imposing physical teams in college basketball. Probably the best rebounding team in the country. They play well at home, and they’re starting to find their stride.”
“It’s going to require a different level of toughness, physicality, want, and desire,” Pearl said when asked how Auburn can combat Florida’s size. “Anyone who doesn’t check out in this game is not going to play.”
Offensively, Auburn enters this matchup having made just four triples on 36 attempts over its last two games. Pearl said he liked the quality of looks, but they simply have not fallen.
The encouraging sign, Pearl said, is that the Tigers have found alternative ways to win. In its midweek matchup against Ole Miss, Auburn buried a season-high 32 makes at the foul line.
“We have three or four guys who we think can get downhill on a mismatch and get to the rim,” Pearl said. “It’s been something that has been really good for us and that we’ve done a good job of in SEC play.
As Auburn aims to end a 30-year drought in Gainesville – the Tigers last won there in 1996 – Pearl will do so against a familiar face in Florida head coach Todd Golden, a longtime friend of Pearl.
Before tipoff at 3 p.m. on ESPN, Pearl will make his rounds to visit Golden and his family – just like they do when they come to Auburn. They’ll laugh and have fun.
But, he said, “It doesn’t mean I don’t want to go down there and kick his ass."
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