The Stretch 4: The keys to Auburn's shot at a 'special' win at Florida

The Tigers are sizable underdogs against the Gators, who look like title contenders again. What would it take to get a historic upset in Gainesville?

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN, Ala. — It’s been almost 30 whole years since Auburn last won at Florida.

The last time the Tigers were down there, they were down 17 early in the first half and trailed by as many as 29 in the second half. And that was the team that went on to win the SEC Tournament a month later.

The time before that, an Auburn team that would win the SEC outright with Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler couldn’t hold onto a 9-point second half lead and lost at the buzzer to a Florida team that didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament.

An Auburn team that won 25 games in 2019-20 scored 47 in Gainesville. The 2017-18 team that came out of nowhere to win the SEC and end Auburn’s March Madness drought? Lost at Florida late in the regular season. Another Auburn NCAA Tournament team, back in 2000, took a 29-point loss at Florida.

So you can understand why Steven Pearl didn’t have much to say about Auburn’s lack of success at Florida this week.

“Different coaches, different teams,” Pearl said Thursday. “We always talk about not living in the past, so we’re not going to.”

Forget the past. Auburn will have its hands extremely full with the present.

Saturday will mark a rematch of the Final Four showdown between Auburn and Florida. While Auburn only returns one player from that matchup, Florida brought back nine — including its starting frontcourt and its surging sixth man.

The expectations were wildly different between the Tigers and the Gators heading into the season. Auburn was in a major program reset that included its head coach’s retirement. Florida, the defending national champion, was expected to contend again from the start.

Todd Golden, the former Auburn assistant and close personal friend of Pearl, saw his team get off to a slow start. The Gators dropped four of their first nine games, but they all came by a combined 14 points — and three came to three of the best teams in all of college basketball this season.

It’s safe to say Florida has figured it out since then. After a close road loss at Missouri to open SEC play, the Gators have won five straight games. All but one of them, a shootout win at previously red-hot Vanderbilt, were by 15-plus points.

“We seem to be catching teams at their best,” Pearl said. “Florida's playing really good basketball. … Best team in our league, I think, by a pretty significant margin.”

On paper, this is the toughest game Auburn has left in the regular season. KenPom projects Florida to win by nine. T-Rank likes the Gators by at least 11. The experts in Las Vegas are somewhere between the two.

But it isn’t like Auburn hasn’t faced teams like Florida. Houston, Michigan, Arizona and Purdue are all higher-rated opponents. With the exception of that virtual early-season home game in Houston, though, Auburn took lopsided losses in those matchups.

So Saturday will be a test to see just how much Auburn — which has won three of its last four games with a surprising concoction of defense, rebounding and paint scoring — has learned and grown from those non-conference losses to title contenders.

“We've kind of been here before, playing these high-level, high-ranked teams,” wing Elyjah Freeman said. “It’s just paying attention to detail… little things that build up to the game matter more than just being in the game and playing. While we're in the game, it’s just making sure that our energy's at the highest level it can be, our effort is there, and everybody's just playing hard and living with the results.”

What would it take for Auburn to have a chance at knocking off Florida in what would be a season-shifting upset? As Pearl says, it’s going to take “special” from his team.

Let’s dive into the specifics of that “special” in this edition of The Stretch 4 preview.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

You can either rebound — or you can go sit down