Following an off-week due to the Christmas Holidays, Auburn men’s basketball remains ranked at No. 2 nationally in the AP Poll for the fifth straight week – trailing just No. 1 Tennessee.
Auburn has been ranked No. 2 more this season, five times, than the rest of its program’s history combined.
Monday’s ranking 38th time in program history, and 18th under head coach Bruce Pearl, the Tigers are in the AP top-five. It also marks just the ninth time ever Auburn has been ranked No. 2 nationally.
The Tigers are one of 10 SEC teams ranked this week – with five ranked in the Top 10. Auburn is followed by conference members; No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Florida, No. 10 Kentucky, No. 12 Oklahoma, No. 13 Texas A&M, No. 17 Mississippi State, No. 23 Arkansas and No. 24 Ole Miss.
Pearl and his squad already have six quad-one wins in their first 12 games of the season – all which were won away from home. The Tigers’ average margin of victory against its six quad-one opponents is 15.0 points.
Auburn has wins against three teams in this week’s AP top 25; No. 3 Iowa State, No. 14 Houston, No. 20 Purdue and No. 21 Memphis.
The Tigers also ranked at the top of the KenPom metric system with wins over two of the top five rated teams and lead No. 2 Duke by a +3.70 margin.
The No. 2 ranked Tigers will take on Monmouth at 5:30 P.M. CST inside of Neville Arena tonight before the beginning of SEC play on Saturday, Jan. 4 at 3 p.m. CST at home against Missouri.
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
