The Auburn men's basketball team left the country on Sunday for tough road contests in Cancun, Mexico, at the Cancun Challenge.
Head coach Bruce Pearl and the Tigers will face Texas Tech on Tuesday, before either facing Utah State, or nationally ranked Purdue on Wednesday.
The Red Raiders were an NCAA Tournament team last year, but do not return head coach Tubby Smith, who left for Memphis after last season. Three starters , Zach Smith, Keenan Evans, and Justin Gray, do return with the addition of talented JUCO transfer, Shadell Millinghaus.
“Texas Tech is a good team, a very good team, and I think they’re going to be an outstanding team," Pearl said. "They’ve got a new coaching staff. They’ve got some new pieces from a team that was in the NCAA Tournament a year ago. But this is maybe the oldest team in the country. They have juniors and seniors and the juniors are 22 and 23 and the seniors are 22 and 23 and 24 and they’re older and they’ve been around awhile."
While Texas Tech is an older more experienced squad, the Tigers will hold a slight edge in talent and athleticism. Both teams will enter the challenge unbeaten, each with three wins. Texas Tech's last victory came over Eastern Kentucky, a team they were trailing by 15 points to at halftime, but came back to win 90-71.
Similarly, the Tigers defeated EKU on Thursday after a tough first half, 85-64.
Tuesday's tip time for Auburn's match up against Texas Tech is set for 5 p.m. CST, and can be seen on the CBS Sports Network.
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