Two days out from the first AP top-10 matchup in Auburn, AL since the 1959 season, head coach Bruce Pearl spoke with the media regarding the Tigers’ upcoming home matchup with No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday night and the annual AUTLIVE cancer game.
Below are highlights of Pearl’s time with the media in anticipation of the top-10 matchup:
Opening Statement - AUTLIVE cancer game:
“First of all, it's our AUTLIVE game, and that's Auburn basketball's fight against cancer. It's an awareness campaign. Every time we people hear about AUTLIVE, it's just a reminder the best way to outlive your cancer is to detect it early. So we got to get checked. To that point, the Mike Slive foundation will be down from Birmingham, and they'll be doing PSA screenings for prostate cancer. But men, you know what you need to do, as far as your colonoscopies when you get past 40 years old and the different screenings that need to take place. Women know what they need to do as far as their mammograms and breast cancer.
“And the whole point is just don't look at that rash or your skin and think it's nothing. Go get it checked. It probably isn't anything. And a reminder, the best way to outlive cancer is to detect it. Second thing is whether you go to AUTLIVE.com and appreciate you guys for putting that out there through. The Bruce Pearl Family Foundation, 100% of everything that comes into our foundation goes back out to patients that are battling cancer. It's not for research. It doesn't go for brick and mortar. It goes to pay a mortgage for a family who has had a missed time at work because of chemo and radiation. It goes for medication that maybe might be too expensive for a family to afford and is not covered by their insurance. And the different agencies in the state of Alabama that we support, they know exactly who needs the help, and so we would appreciate people taking a time and be prayerful about it, knowing that by giving to AUTLIVE you're going to be helping somebody directly.”
Opening Statement - Tennessee game:
“These two teams, Tennessee and Auburn, have been the best two teams in the SEC at least by winning percentage over the last eight years. And I'm proud to be a part of that, and even in some smaller, lesser way, also proud that I was at Tennessee and helped get that thing going a little bit, and now here at Auburn.
“Got such great respect for Coach Barnes and their coaching staff, and he's done an amazing job with that Tennessee team. They play as good a defense as anybody in the country…They're one of the best offensive rebound teams in the country, and they shoot it really well from three. They've got three or four guys that can really, really knock it down, and it's a tough cover. Only four teams have scored 70 points or more against them all season long. Like us, they play an incredible schedule.”
Opening Statement - College Gameday:
“So excited about College GameDay being here. We're the only school in the country that can say, at least at this point, that College Game Day has been on our campus five years in a row in college basketball. Now, if they go back to Duke later on this year, they go back to Kansas later on this year, that they can say the same thing, but still to be in that company, it speaks to the incredible home court advantage that we have at Neville Arena, the best home court advantage in all of college basketball, thanks to the Auburn Family. I'm happy for our players, who have worked so hard to get that visibility and happy for our student body and our university as well.”
Update on Johni Broome’s Status for Saturday’s game:
“Well, right now we're going to, we'll practice this afternoon, and there's a possibility he'll try and practice, but we're not sure. I'll obviously know more tomorrow and Saturday. So I don't know whether he's questionable or possible, but I do know he's going to try to move around a little bit today and we'll just have to see how he does.”
Matching up with Zakai Zeigler again:
“Well, he's one of the leading assist guys in the country, and he's a brilliant passer. He's already set the all time record for Tennessee in steals. And you know, he's been the face of that program for a long, long time. In many ways, they go as he goes, and he always goes pretty well. He's a great three point shooter with a great percentage, and he's hard to stay in front of. So obviously, so much of what you do, you got a game plan for Zakai Zeigler. He will go down as one of the all-time greats in the history of Tennessee basketball.”
Tennessee’s defense and physicality:
“They have a system of defenses where they're able to guard everything. They do it with great ball pressure. They do it by extending catches. They do it with athleticism. They don't take possessions off. Everything we do will be extremely well scouted and fits within the framework of what they guard and so it'll come down to being able to execute and make some tough shots. And you know you're just not going to get anything easy against Tennessee. They're very physical offensively, very physical defensively and you've got to be able to handle that physicality on both ends of the floor.”
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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
