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Auburn rolled up LSU 95-70 last night, scoring in the 90s for the second straight game, and winning a game against a team that had been good on the road in dominating fashion. This week was a good one for the Tigers, as Auburn beat Missouri (KenPom #49) and LSU (KenPom #64) by an average of 21.5 points.
Let’s not waste your time, here are the highlights from last night.
And THE highlight from last night (aside from Mustapha Heron’s opening act with 16 points before the first media timeout).
#SCtop10 Desean Murray with the steal and pass to Jared Harper who lobs it up to Malik Dunbar who jams it home pic.twitter.com/tFPXoekOwX
— ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@SkyeUnderwood) January 28, 2018
In fact, just about the only thing that did go wrong for Auburn was Bruce Pearl getting a little too excited as Jared Harper was getting set to check in.
Whoops. pic.twitter.com/a8WnvETuFC
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) January 28, 2018
Oh well. I’m sure both coach and player will take a little bump for the end result. Auburn didn’t just enjoy a huge win, the Tigers should enjoy a bump in the rankings, and it began with the immediately-updated RPI after last night’s game.
Updated SEC hoops RPI following Saturday’s action. Auburn moves into the top five. Seven teams now in the top 40. pic.twitter.com/PLvmEBLYyn
— Blake Lovell (@theblakelovell) January 28, 2018
Auburn’s already beaten seven of those teams, including two of the other three ranked in the top 25 of the RPI standings. The Tigers will play the second-highest ranked team in Kentucky on Valentine’s Day. Up next for Auburn, it’s Ole Miss on the road. Auburn fell behind Ole Miss last time out on the Plains, but rallied for a double-digit win at home.
Since the last meeting, Ole Miss has gone 2-3, with losses @ Texas A&M, @ Arkansas, and @ Texas. In Oxford, however, the Rebels have beaten Florida and Alabama. It’s not difficult to see that Ole Miss is a much different team at home than they are away from the Pavilion, and Auburn will have its hands full.
Still, watching Auburn since the first half against Georgia, you can see that the Tigers are becoming much more comfortable with themselves. The second half against the Bulldogs was a thing of beauty. Out in CoMo, Auburn bounced back from a Missouri run that cut the lead to one, and went on a huge run to close the game out. Then last night, it was a blood-letting from the opening tipoff. Ole Miss is good at home, Auburn’s the better overall team, and playing much better basketball at this point.
Last night was fun, and I believe we’ll see some more of that through the final few weeks of the regular season. Enjoy it! We haven’t gotten to experience this kind of basketball in nearly 20 years.
War Eagle!