The struggles of the men's basketball team continue after losing to no. 7 Florida, 83-52, at home Saturday, Feb. 16.
The 31-point loss was the largest loss the Tigers have had all season and the biggest home deficit under Coach Tony Barbee, dropping the Tigers to a 9-16 overall record and 3-9 in conference play.
Florida would get off to a quick lead against the Tigers, quickly jumping out to double digits. Auburn would not respond well to the fast start by the Gators, and the first half would end with Florida ahead 47-22.
"You want to put up a better fight than that against a team that good, especially in front of a great crowd like it was today, but it's obvious why Florida is that good," Barbee said.
Mike Rosario was Florida's leading scorer with 22 points, going 9-14 on field goals and 2-6 on 3-pointers.
As a team, Florida excelled in shooting. It went 50 percent from the 3-point range while Auburn shot 25 percent.
"Once it gets going for them," Sullivan said, "it's hard to get them to stop."
Taking care of the basketball would also be a problem for Auburn. The team committed 14 turnovers that day.
"You just can't make the mistakes that we made on them, because they aren't going to break down," Sullivan said. "You can't have 14 or 15 turnovers and expect to stay in the game."
After a promising start to the year, many fans thought this may be the year for Auburn basketball to be able to compete with some of the better teams in the conference, but Saturday's loss to Florida proved Auburn is still a long way away.
"It's getting to a point where it's getting redundant and embarrassing after every game," Sullivan said. "We're a long ways right now, a long way away. I think you get to a point where you just have to fight and have pride."
Barbee was pleased with some of his team's effort on the day, but as a team he does not think it's where it needs to be.
"Collectively, we fought our butts off against Alabama and Kentucky, and we haven't since," Barbee said. "We've got some guys that are fighting their butts off, and I've just got to figure out the guys that are still fighting for this team, and I'm going to go with those guys. Even if it's all freshmen."
Auburn will return to action Wednesday, Feb. 20 at home against Texas A&M.
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