When Auburn departed for a nine-day road trip in December, coach Bruce Pearl’s goal was two-fold.
The first was obvious — win. The Tigers did that only once in four games, falling to Xavier to open the trip and losing two of three games in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic.
The second was to gain valuable experience playing on the road, which Auburn was hopeful would pay off in SEC play.
Pearl will take his team on the road for the first time in SEC play this Saturday when the Tigers travel to Missouri, and he is hopeful the experience gained in Cincinnati and Hawaii will pay dividends in Columbia.
“I'd say because we played at Xavier and at Hawaii, those two games were good environments,” Pearl said. “Missouri should be a good environment also. It won't be the first hostile environment we've been to. … From that standpoint I don't think the road is going to affect our play too much.”
Missouri holds opponents to an average of 67.7 points per game, well below Auburn’s season average of 78.8 points per game, and Pearl believes the young Tigers will play even better at home.
“Defensively they’re really solid,” Pearl said. “They take great pride in how they defend. That has kept them in games.”
Auburn enters the game 1-1 in SEC play after suffering a loss to South Carolina Tuesday night. Pearl’s squad is also still dealing with injuries to three scholarship guards, something senior Jordon Granger said will have minimal effect on the Tigers at Mizzou Arena.
“I have faith in all my teammates that we’re going to able to do what our goal is, and that’s to make it to the tournament and do good things for our university,” Granger said. “I feel like everything is still possible. We’re still on the right route of where we need to go.”
Now three weeks removed from their journey to Hawaii, Granger believes the trip was a success — even with the 1-3 record.
“It kind of got us mentally ready and prepared to go on the road against a tough Missouri team who’s actually great at home," Granger said. "I see they’re 7-1 at home. That’s a great team to play. I feel like being battle-tested and going on the road against those tough teams we played against will help us for this game.”
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