Head coach Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Basketball team have agreed to play the Oklahoma Sooners in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Birthday of Basketball in December. The event will take place at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Dec. 21. It will be the first time the Tigers and Sooners have met on the court since the 1998 NCAA Tournament.
Auburn and Oklahoma will be joining Boston College and Fairfield at the event.
“My first reaction to being invited to play was is Auburn Basketball really being invited to play in the Hall of Fame Classic’s “Birthday of Basketball?” asked Pearl.
“Really, are our players are going to get a chance to play against a Final Four team from last year? Am I going to get to coach against a Hall of Famer like Lon Kruger? And the answer is yes.”
The Sooners and Tigers were both in Hawaii in December of 2015 competing in the Diamond Head Classic, but did not play each other. Oklahoma went 29-8 last year and finished third in the BIG12. They lost to the eventual National Champion Villanova Wildcats in last years Final Four.
Pearl, a Boston College graduate, will be returning close to home with Tiger freshman and Connecticut native Mustapha Heron. Heron is a Waterbury, Connecticut native, which is just 71 miles from Uncasville.
“Certainly going home back to New England will be exciting,” said Pearl. “Getting a chance to bring Mustapha Heron home. The Mohegan Sun is an hour east of Waterbury.”
Auburn will play in the 2016 Cancun Challenge Nov. 22-23 against Texas Tech and either No. 15/13 Purdue or Utah State. The Tigers will also play in the inaugural Under Armour “Reunion” in New York City’s Madison Square Garden against Boston College on Dec. 12 and play at TCU in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on January 28, 2017.
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