After beating a talented and experienced Texas Tech squad, and falling short to perhaps the best non-conference team they will face in Purdue, the Auburn Tigers find themselves with a 4-1 record returning home to Auburn Arena.
In Cancun, Auburn was brilliant in the first halves of both contests, but were outscored 95-59 in the second halves and barely got past the Red Raiders from Texas before getting blown out by the Purdue Boilermakers.
Pearl understands there is room for improvement.
“At times we showed how young we are. There's just no denying it,” Pearl said. “But we were still able to survive Texas Tech's comeback and play even with Purdue for about 28 minutes or something like that. But I thought our youth showed a little bit.”
Auburn has a chance to rebound and get another win on Tuesday as the welcome USC Upstate to Auburn Arena.
USC Upstate (3-3) has struggled this season, and lost by 45 to their biggest opponent Georgetown earlier this month. A bright spot for the Trojans is their 7-footer, Michael Buchanan, who is averaging 12.5 points and 8.5 rebounds off the bench this season. Big men have given the Tigers fits so far this season.
“They can score. They’re an exciting team,” Pearl said. “What I would anticipate is it’ll be up-tempo, exciting game. The games they’ve lost, they’ve been guarded and didn’t score as well as they wanted so defense will be important, transition defense will be important for us. It was one of the things that bothered us in Cancun.”
Auburn vs. USC Upstate is set to tip off at 7 p.m. CST in Auburn Arena. Action can be seen on the SEC Network+.
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