“We've played a really tough schedule, and we lost to a lot of teams that were favored and were better than us,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “ Even though we've lost some games, I was proud of them for competing. I want them to know that they're good enough.”
Auburn will be facing another team that has a size advantage.
The day after earning the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and winning the SEC Championship, the University of Alabama basketball team finished the 2022-2023 season as the No. 1 team in the country.
Just like the days of the Iron Bowl at Legion Field, the center of college athletics in Alabama will once again be in Birmingham this week as the city will host Auburn and Alabama for the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers are a No. 9 seed, and will face Iowa. Birmingham will host portions of the first and second rounds of the South and Midwest Regions.
The weekend started on the right track, with a 7-1 win over Southeastern Lousiana (11-5) on Friday, but the Lions battled back and took home both games of Saturday's doubleheader, securing a series win.
It was already going to be a big night for the No. 9 Auburn Tigers.
It was a different story from last year, but the same result for Auburn (20-12, 10-8 SEC), who has gone one-and-done in the SEC Tournament for the second year in a row, dropping a second-round matchup with Arkansas 76-73. The Razorbacks (20-12, 8-10 SEC) will move on and look to strengthen their NCAA Tournament resume, while the Tigers will look to regroup and prepare for the madness of March.
With SEC play just under two weeks away, Auburn has seven games in seven days and the non-conference test began with a Tuesday night matchup against UAB. The in-state rivals, and coached by former Auburn great Casey Dunn, have struggled as of late and put up a fight, but the Tigers were able to shut down the UAB offense and get some hits of their own, winning 4-1.
It was not always an easy weekend, but the Tigers secured the sweep of Lipscomb with an eighth inning three-run homer from Bryson Ware sealing the final Sunday victory. Auburn moves to 9-1-1 as the non-conference slate rolls along this week.
What was already going to be a difficult meet became even stranger as severe weather forced what would have been another Top-15 Friday night heights matchup for the Auburn Tigers to be postponed to Saturday at 11 a.m. CST. Auburn head coach Jeff Graba had already planned on resting Sunisa Lee on some floor, but with the added delay, senior day coming up and the postseason right around the corner, Graba decided to rest Lee for the entire meet.
Auburn has faced must-win after must-win in the last month, and it has been more disappointment than excitement for the Tigers. Losers of eight of their last 11, the Tigers needed a win to not only go into the SEC Tournament with momentum, but also send the seniors out on top. Auburn(20-11, 10-8 SEC) did both, earning a crucial Quad 1 win, taking down No. 12 Tennessee(22-8, 11-7 SEC) 79-70.
Derrian Gobourne has done it again. The fifth-year senior has earned another weekly accolade, being named SEC Specialist of the Week after scoring a 9.9 on vault and a pair of 9.95s on floor and bars during the Tigers' win over Georgia last week.
Auburn surrendered its 17-point lead, lost Johni Broome to foul trouble and Dylan Cardwell to an injury, and still, the Tigers had a chance to win in regulation.
Only three weeks into the season, Bri Ellis has earned her first SEC Player of the Week award after going 10-14 from the plate in Auburn softball's six games last week.
After notching a league-best 11 hits in the four-game stretch last week, Ike Irish is now 2-for-2 on SEC Freshman of the Week awards. The freshman and designated hitter has been dominant behind the plate, providing multiple hits in each of the four games against North Alabama and USC, leading the Tigers to a 3-0-1 record during the week.
With three difficult games left on the schedule, and a team that was narrowly avoiding the bubble, Auburn(19-10, 9-7 SEC) needed to build off of the momentum from the Ole Miss win and compete in Rupp Arena. Instead, what was a close game quickly turned into complete domination as the Tigers fell to the Wildcats(20-9, 11-5 SEC) 86-54.
“This year’s team has a lot of scoring potential, as much as we did last year,” said Auburn head coach Jeff Graba. “It’s just a matter of settling down and believing in ourselves and getting to the point where we expect it to happen a certain way.”
Even on a short week and following the lowest score of the season, the No. 7 Tigers are ready to turn the page at the right time, with three meets to go before the SEC Tournament in Duluth.
No win in the SEC comes easily, and while it was not always pretty, Auburn took down Ole Miss 78-74, clinching the season sweep of the Rebels.
After the first weekend series of his Auburn career, Ike Irish has already earned the first accolade of what could be a promising career.
With Derrian Gobourne not competing on floor, and Suni Lee competing in just two of four events, it was a rest night for the Auburn Tigers as they took on Missouri.
In a big day for the SEC, with a huge win for Alabama and a critical victory for Kentucky in Rupp, Auburn’s NCAA Tournament resume took a significant blow with a loss to Vanderbilt in Nashville.
On a team with an Olympian and the Queen of Auburn gymnastics and a season built around returning to the Final Four for the second appearance in program history, Cassie Stevens has become a star in her own right.
In what Bruce Pearl called a “must-win” game, the Tigers (18-8, 8-5 SEC) not only defeated but completely dominated Missouri (19-7, 7-6 SEC) in a wire-to-wire victory at Neville Arena. Auburn jumped out to a 19-2 first-half lead against the Tigers of the SEC East, and from there the result was rarely in doubt. Auburn is back in the win column after an impressive 89-56 victory, as the road to the NCAA Tournament continues.
In what is likely the first award of many this season, Maddie Penta has been named the SEC Pitcher of the Week after a stellar opening weekend. Penta combined for three shutouts during the five game opening weekend for the Tigers.
Jungle Village was already populated with hundreds of people in tents set up yesterday, but there was still a packed house on hand to witness another Top-10 matchup for Auburn gymnastics. The No. 15 Tigers set a season-high on the floor and bars on the way to a 197.750 team score, defeating No. 9 LSU.
After another historic night in the career of Suni Lee, the sophomore gymnast was named SEC Gymnast of the Week for the third time this season. It was a great night for Lee and her team, with the Auburn legend scoring two more perfect 10s and Auburn securing a season-high score. The Tigers could not get the win over their rivals, but it was a good step for Lee and the team.