As the top-seeded Tigers head North to Nashville, TN for the 2025 SEC Tournament, the regular season league champions look to break a two-game skid that put a damper on the celebration of a historic season for Auburn.
“I’d like our guys to continue to fight for the opportunity to make history and be a team that separates itself,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “Can we be one of only three programs to win both the SEC regular season and the SEC Tournament? Can we do that? Can we surpass the 2019 team that got to the Final Four?”
The Tigers first losing streak of the season corresponded with senior power forward Chaney Johnson’s longest stretch without scoring in double figures of SEC play — scoring no more than four points in the final three contests of the regular season.
“Foul trouble has been an issue for Chaney,” Pearl said. “He's gotten in some foul trouble. When he is not flying around and being one of the best athletes on the floor and using his athleticism, his speed, his power, his physicality — which, sometimes, you don't do when you get in foul trouble — it lessens his effect on the game.”
Pearl has spoken very highly of Johnson all season long, often stating that ‘you haven’t seen the best of Chaney Johnson yet’. But in Johnson’s last three games played, it’s not that the Tigers hadn’t seen the power forward’s best yet, it’s that they hadn’t seen him enough.
In Auburn’s final trio of SEC matchups, the senior has played an average of just 21.3 minutes-per-game — nearly three and a half minutes less than rest of his conference average. Johnson’s also taken just three shots a-piece in each of the final three games — nearly half his average during his first 15 league contests.
The 6-foot-7 forward also recorded three-or-more fouls in each of the last three matchups — culminating with four fouls in just a 15 minute outing against No. 7 Alabama. Johnson’s 15 minutes of action in the Tigers’ loss to the Tide was his second fewest minutes on the floor in SEC play.
“I remember, at times, prior to Chaney really starting to get going, talking about, 'Just wait. Chaney Johnson's gonna get going.' And he did. And we need him to. We do,” Pearl said.
Johnson has experienced one other prolonged stretch of failing to record 10-or-more points — missing the mark for four straight games during the Tigers’ non-conference run. But, as Pearl alluded to, Johnson did ‘get going’, responding when Auburn needed him most.
When Johni Broome had to exit the December matchup with Georgia State just minutes into the matchup due to injury, Johnson proceeded to score a season-high 26 points, shooting 12-for-14 from the field.
Perhaps that’s what Auburn’s ‘hardest worker’, that’s come off the bench almost the entire season, is ready for, shining when the Tigers need him the most this March.
“I’m anxious to, obviously, find ways to get that back,” Pearl said. “Nobody's in the gym more. Nobody's working harder. Nobody deserves it more than Chaney.”
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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
