The full 2023-24 non-conference schedule for Auburn men's basketball has been announced. Auburn will have seven home games and five neutral-site games this coming season.
“When you set up your non-conference schedule, you send a message to your players and to your fanbase how good you think you will be,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “I don’t try to do it that way. We try to compete for championships and we’ve won three in the last six years. This non-conference schedule will get us ready for what’s going to be the most competitive SEC since I’ve been at Auburn.”
After an exhibition contest against Auburn University at Montgomery on Wednesday, Nov. 1, the Tigers will travel to Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Tuesday, Nov. 7 to open the season against Baylor. The Tigers are 9-0 in season openers under Bruce Pearl. Auburn's first home game of the regular season is on Friday, Nov. 10 against Southeastern Louisiana.
The Tigers' first neutral-site games of the season will come in the Legends Classic in Brooklyn, New York. Auburn will face Notre Dame to open the event on Thursday, Nov. 16 and will take on either Oklahoma State or St. Bonaventure the following day.
Auburn will return home on Tuesday, Nov. 21 to face Alabama A&M and will take on Virginia Tech at Neville Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 29 as part of the ACC-SEC Challenge.
“We have some other really tough, competitive non-conference games that are going to prepare us for league play,” Pearl said. “I want to give my assistant coach, Mike Burgomaster, a lot of credit for doing the work and research to be able to find and attract these kind of teams to play us. It is an analytics game and you have to have enough math to get you into the tournament.”
Auburn's lone road game of the non-conference slate will be at Appalachian State on Sunday, Dec. 3. Auburn's trip to Boone, North Carolina is a return trip after the Mountaineers visited Neville Arena in 2020.
A pair of neutral-site games follows the trip as Auburn travels to Atlanta to face Indiana on Saturday, Dec. 9 in the Holiday Hoopsgiving event and takes on defending Big South champion UNC Asheville at Huntsville, Alabama's Von Braun Center on Wednesday, Dec. 13.
“There’s no chance we are dumbing it down, especially with the teams that we are playing on neutral courts,” Pearl said. “We will take our team back to Brooklyn where we won the tournament in 2019. Having previously coached at Southern Indiana, I understand what basketball means in the state of Indiana. IU is a Top 10 team and will be a tough test in Atlanta.”
The highlight of the home non-conference slate is USC's trip to Neville Arena on Sunday, Dec. 17. The home game is the return contest of a trip Auburn made to Los Angeles last season.
“USC is a preseason Top 10 team that will come into Neville Arena with a very talented roster,” Pearl said. “To have a program like USC travel to Auburn for basketball is comparable to USC coming into Jordan-Hare Stadium and how good its program has been historically in football. USC has one of those kind of basketball programs now.”
Three more home games conclude the non-conference slate, as Alabama State visits the Tigers on Friday, Dec. 22, defending Southern Conference runner-up Chattanooga comes to the Plains on Saturday, Dec. 30 and Penn visits Auburn on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024.
“Last year, our non-conference schedule definitely helped us get into the NCAA Tournament and the 8-9 (seed) game,” Pearl said. “Over the last six years, we have had the best non-conference record over any team in the SEC (75-17 overall, .815). I hope that after seven years, I can say the same thing.”
The SEC schedule will begin for the Tigers on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2024.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
Matthew is a senior from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2021.
Twitter: @mattwallaceAU
