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After winning a game in what might as well have been District 12 out of the Hunger Games (seriously, look at how our orange road uniforms were the only color at the Hump on Saturday), Auburn has run its SEC record to 4-0.
But wait, there’s more!
Auburn also holds the nation’s longest winning streak at fourteen games after West Virginia’s loss to Texas Tech over the weekend. The Tigers are ahead of Purdue (thirteen straight) and Saint Mary’s (twelve straight) in that category, and will take on Alabama on the road on Wednesday night in Tuscaloosa.
All that combined means that Auburn has risen once again in the polls. The AP Poll was released just a few moments ago, and the Tigers are now the highest-ranked team out of the SEC at No. 17.
Auburn jumps to No. 17 in the latest AP poll, its highest ranking since Feb. 21, 2000. https://t.co/N5ghldXOky
— Greg Ostendorf (@greg_ostendorf) January 15, 2018
There are two other SEC teams in the rankings -- Kentucky at No. 18, and Tennessee at No. 21. Auburn’s already beaten the Volunteers in Knoxville, and will take on the Wildcats on Valentine’s Day at Auburn Arena.
This coming week should be a landmine-filled affair, with games at Alabama on Wednesday, and Georgia at home on Saturday. Alabama’s played a much tougher (okay) schedule than Auburn, and is a true Jekyll-and-Hyde team this year. They rolled Texas A&M when the Aggies were a top ten team, but then lost two straight at Vanderbilt (one of the worst teams in the league), and got drilled at Georgia. Since that time they’ve won two straight at home over South Carolina and LSU. Colin Sexton’s one of the best volume scorers in the conference, but the Tide will be shorthanded after Donta Hall underwent a minor surgical procedure that’ll keep him out for Wednesday’s game.
The rest of the month of January sees the Tigers play at Missouri next Wednesday, then back home against LSU on the 27th before finishing the month at Ole Miss on the 30th. It’s not unreasonable to say that this week’s games could be the toughest that Auburn will play this month and could catapult the Tigers into a really favorable position in time for the stretch run.
War Eagle!