Auburn looks to bounce back from its loss to in-state rival Alabama, when the team travels to Gainesville on Saturday to face the Florida Gators. Though the Tigers lead the all-time series, an Auburn team has not won in Gainesville since 1996, a losing streak now at 12 games.
The Gators have played seven home games this season, winning six of them. Their only loss at home was in the second game of the season to now-ranked No. 9 Florida State. Florida has not defeated a top-five team since 2009, when they defeated then-ranked No. 2 Michigan State.
Auburn (15-1) has a little less time than Florida (11-5) to prepare for Saturday’s game because the team returned to Auburn around 2:30 a.m. on Thursday following the late game Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa. Florida, meanwhile, played its game this past week on Tuesday, a 71-55 home victory over Ole Miss.
“It will be a quick turnaround. We have enough time to get prepared, but they obviously have had some extra time,” Pearl said in his weekly press conference.
Auburn will look to improve this weekend after tying its season-high in turnovers with 21 against Alabama on Wednesday. Florida will have the advantage in the turnover category, averaging just 12.1 turnovers per game compared to Auburn’s 13.4 per game. When Florida wins the turnover battle, the Gators are 8-1.
It will also be a battle of the big men on Saturday, with Auburn’s Austin Wiley and Florida’s Kerry Blackshear Jr. being some of the “best big men in the league", as Pearl put it. Wiley is coming off of his seventh double-double of the season, 60% of those points came from the free-throw line on Wednesday. Wiley is now shooting 68.4% from the free throw line on the season, a career best.
“[Wiley] kinda expects it to go in. When you’re not a good free throw shooter, you don’t want to get fouled,” Pearl said. “Now he wants to get fouled.”
Pearl also gave an update on Samir Doughty, who tweaked his Achilles tendon during the first half against Alabama.
“He’s okay,” Pearl said. “I was expecting him to be really sore coming back today, and he wasn’t.”
Tip-off is set for 12:30 p.m. CST on CBS.
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