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If you're looking for a game built to regain confidence following Saturday's collapse against Ole Miss, this is not that game.
The Tigers welcome the Florida Gators to Auburn Arena, tonight, a team that is currently 20-5 and 1st in the SEC with losses only to South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Their resume includes a 22 point win over Kentucky at home in Gainesville and a 32 point destruction of Oklahoma in Norman. This is a very good team. Auburn will need to put together its best two halves of the season to have a chance at winning this one.
The Gators are led by Sophomore Guard KeVaughn Allen, who is averaging 13.1 points per game. Senior graduate transfer Canyon Berry isn't far behind with 12.7, and then Junior Devin Robinson with 11.4. They spread the points around pretty consistently. They're also pretty decent from the three point line. Their stats match closely with Auburn, there, but for the Tigers, you also have to take into account the very cold stretches they'll go on where they throw up junk threes that kill statistics.
Speaking of three point statistics, Bryce Brown's average is already back up to .350 for the season. That's amazing when you consider how many misses he had for most of the year up until just a week or so ago. That's not a great percentage, but considering how bad his slump was, that's impressive. Hopefully, he continues to play at the level he has lately.
Auburn will once again be without Horace Spencer for this one, and they'll be without him for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury. That really hurts given his shot-blocking ability. Florida is not an overly big team with its primary contributors, so having a big game by players like Ronnie Johnson to feed Austin Wiley and Anfernee McLemore under the basket may be the key to Auburn having a chance in this one.
This isn't exactly a must-win for Auburn, but a win would definitely be huge. This is going to go down as a frustrating season of "might-have-been's" when you consider the opportunities Auburn has had to do big things.
How to Watch, Stream, Listen
Time: 6 pm Central
TV: SEC Network
Stream: WatchESPN
Listen: Auburn Sports Network