After securing the No. 10 seed in the SEC tournament with a 67-52 win over Louisiana State Univeristy in Auburn Arena Saturday, the Auburn Tigers men's basketball team will face seventh-seeded Ole Miss in the tournament's first round at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in New Orleans.
Auburn finished the regular season at 15-15 and 5-11 in the SEC, while Ole Miss boasts an 18-12 record overall and went 8-8 in the conference.
This will be the third meeting between the two teams this season. The Tigers won the first, 69-68, in double overtime Jan. 14 in Auburn, while the Rebels took the second game, 61-54, Feb. 11 in Oxford, Miss.
"The thing that I know about my team, we are going to New Orleans with a lot of confidence, and we've talked about getting a little momentum," said Auburn coach Tony Barbee. "We really needed that win to really feel good about ourselves going in."
Players agree that the victory over LSU provides a solid foundation entering the tournament.
"There's nothing like it," said junior guard Frankie Sullivan, who had a team-high 22 points in Saturday's win.
"I think us winning this game and going into the SEC tournament gives us some motivation because we can play with anybody. We've been doing it all year; we just need to do it for 40 minutes."
Sullivan mentioned the 2008 Georgia Bulldogs and their unlikely run to win the SEC tournament as proof that any team can win.
"Anything can happen in the SEC tournament, as you can see from a couple of years back when Georgia did it," Sullivan said. "Anybody can go out and win the SEC Championship; you just got to go out and play the game."
The Tigers won Saturday without sophomore forward Allen Payne and sophomore guard Josh Langford. Payne will be out for the remainder of the season because of knee surgery, and Langford is recovering from a concussion.
Sophomore guard Varez Ward remains suspended indefinitely.
Sophomore guard Chris Denson said it is necessary for other players to step up in their absence.
"Losing Payne, Langford and Varez really affected us scoring, but you know coach always says step up, and today Noel (Johnson) stepped up," Denson said.
Johnson scored only three points against LSU, but gave the Tigers 14 minutes off the bench as the only reserve small forward.
The Rebels lead the SEC in rebounding, averaging 38.1 per game, but Barbee is approaching the tournament with a fresh mindset.
"We talk about the season being three phases, and we just finished the second one," Barbee said. "No matter what you did all year long, in phase three ... anything can happen.
"So we're going to go into the conference tournament no matter what the matchup thinking that we are going to win the whole thing, but it starts with the first one."
The winner of the first-round matchup between Auburn and Ole Miss will face No. 2 seed Tennessee, who enters the tournament on a four-game win streak, at 6:30 p.m. March 9.
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