How good does Auburn basketball have to be on the road to win a title?
The Tigers weren't a bad team away from Neville Arena last season. But there's room to improve — and it could make all the difference.
SF Chad Baker-Mazara (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
Last season, Auburn basketball only lost eight times.
That was tied for the third-lowest amount for the program in a full campaign with at least 30 games, trailing only the famed 1998-99 season and the 2021-22 run to No. 1 in the country and an outright SEC championship. (Auburn only lost six times during the 2019-20 season, which didn’t have any postseason play due to COVID.)
Of those eight losses, seven of them came away from home. Of those seven losses, two of them were in neutral-site games: the season opener against Baylor and the season finisher against Yale in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
In home games, Auburn went a dominant 15-1. In neutral-site games, it went 7-2.
In true road games, though, the Tigers were an even .500 at 5-5.
This created a perception during the season that Auburn just couldn’t get it done away from Neville Arena. The Tigers might have had outstanding analytics and a very strong overall record, but critics both inside and outside the fan base quickly pointed to their road losses — including ones from other recent seasons.
Were those criticisms fair, or did they go too far? Just how much has Auburn been held back by its perceived road struggles?
Last week, before an AMBUSH alumni club meeting at nearby Lake Martin, Bruce Pearl was asked about his team’s road record. Pearl’s answer revealed some insight on how he views playing away from home and what should reasonably be expected in the race for a conference championship.
“If we can win them all at home and split on the road, it gives us a fighting chance,” Pearl said. “It just does. It’s so hard to win on the road.”
Last season, Auburn went 5-4 in true road games in SEC play, with the fifth loss coming in December to a surprisingly hot-shooting Appalachian State. (That loss became a turning point for the Tigers, though, as they won their next 11 games and 14 of their next 16 overall.)
That 5-4 mark in SEC road games was tied for fourth-best in the conference. Tennessee and South Carolina both went 7-2, with Kentucky at 6-3. Alabama joined Auburn at 5-4.
The other nine teams in the conference, meanwhile, had losing road records. More than half of the league lost more games away from home than they won. That means Auburn already established itself as a true contender in the SEC by just getting to five road wins.
“I think this is the third time in the last seven years, so we've done it before,” Pearl said after Auburn beat Missouri on the road in March. “Neville Arena deserves a lot of credit. The Jungle deserves a lot of credit for having a great home-court advantage — maybe the best in college basketball.
“But, sometimes, what comes along with that is we can't win away from Neville Arena. And that's just not been the case. We've got a winning record on the road, and we did it again this year.”
Before going 5-4 on the road in SEC play last season, Auburn went 3-6 in the previous campaign. Before that, the Tigers went 6-3 in a 2021-22 campaign that finished with an outright league championship.
That means the Tigers have gone slightly over .500 — 14-13 — in SEC road games over the last three seasons.
At first glance, that may seem like a rough mark. But it really isn’t.