Auburn basketball will remain outside the AP Top 25 for the second straight week as the Tigers were ranked No. 28 with 128 points in Monday's edition of the rankings.
On the heels of a three-game losing streak that broke the team's 22-week streak in the Top 25, the Tigers claimed a pair of wins last week against Missouri and Alabama.
The name of the game was defense in the two victories as Auburn (15-6, 4-4 SEC) forced 41 combined turnovers, scoring 58 points off the giveaways. After giving up an average of 80 points per game through its 2-4 start in SEC play, Auburn held Mizzou and Alabama to an average score of 61.5.
After the win over the Tigers' archrival, guard Bryce Brown said the Top 25 slight last week fueled the team.
"Yeah, I kind of feel like that wasn't a bad thing," said Brown, who joins Tennessee's Grant Williams (21.1 ppg) as the only players to average 20-plus points a game in SEC play this season. "I feel like we got that chip back on our shoulder a little bit. It was a wakeup call for us... just time to wake up and play ball."
The Tigers are currently No. 13 in the Kenpom college basketball power rankings and No. 21 in the NCAA basketball NET rankings.
Auburn hosts Florida tomorrow night at 8 p.m. CST.
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Nathan King, senior in journalism with a minor in business, is The Plainsman's sports editor.
