Following an SEC opening win at home against Missouri this past Saturday, Auburn men’s basketball remains ranked at No. 2 nationally in the AP Poll for the sixth straight week – trailing just No. 1 Tennessee.
Auburn has been ranked No. 2 more this season, six times, than the rest of its program’s history combined.
Monday’s ranking 39th time in program history, and 19th under head coach Bruce Pearl, the Tigers are in the AP top-five. It also marks just the tenth time ever Auburn has been ranked No. 2 nationally.
The Tigers are one of nine SEC teams ranked this week – with six ranked in the Top 10. Auburn is followed by conference members; No. 5 Alabama, No. 6 Kentucky, No. 8 Florida, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 14 Mississippi State, No. 17 Oklahoma and No. 23 Ole Miss.
Pearl and his squad already have six quad-one wins in their first 14 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 four teams in this week’s AP top 25; No. 3 Iowa State, No. 12 Houston, No. 19 Memphis and No. 20 Purdue.
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 +1.46 margin.
The No. 2 ranked Tigers are set for just their second true road test of the season in a trip to face Texas tomorrow at 8 p.m. CST on ESPN2 before traveling to South Carolina to take on the Gamecocks this Saturday, Jan. 11 at Noon CST on the SEC Network.
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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
