The Auburn Tigers will travel to Waco, Texas on Saturday to take on the No. 2 ranked Baylor Bears in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge. The Tigers are coming off their best win of the season against No.12 Missouri, but the Bears are firing on all cylinders.
“I’m not sure I’ve played a better team,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said.
Auburn enters the matchup winning four of their last five games including Tuesday’s win over Missouri and a 109-86 win against South Carolina. The Tigers have shown significant improvement since the debut of point guard Sharife Cooper. In Cooper’s six games since his debut, he’s averaging 22.3 points per game which is tied for fourth in the nation.
Baylor, riding an undefeated 15-0 record, is coming off a 107-59 win over Kansas State. One of the stark contrasts between the Tigers and the Bears is the age of the team, with Baylor being a much older and experienced team than the Tigers.
“This Baylor team, they’re older than the Chicago Bulls," Pearl said. "For real. The average age is over 21, they’re men. So they’ve got a lot of experience.”
Auburn has already had experience playing the No. 1 team in the country, the Gonzaga Bulldogs. The matchup was an overwhelming win for the Bulldogs, but Pearl believes the game gave his young team valuable experience.
“We’re playing better, we have more confidence,” Pearl said on how the team has changed since that game. “The Gonzaga game, second game of the year, they were still kind of figuring things out.”
Playing an out of conference game in the middle of SEC play is another thing that this young Auburn team will have to adapt to, especially when traveling to Waco where the Bears are 21-1 over the past two years.
“I think it’s interesting for the nation to see the two conferences go against each other,” Pearl said. “It is great for the student-athletes because they haven’t seen these guys. It’s like an NCAA Tournament matchup and nobody knows each other’s tendencies.”
Playing on the road against a top team in college basketball is no small feat, but Pearl is ready to put the Tigers to the test.
“Can we handle the moment as a team?” Pearl said. “That's why we're going down there to see. We have not experienced anything quite like it yet.”
Auburn and Baylor will tip-off at 3 p.m. CST on Saturday. The matchup will be televised on ESPN.
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