Can Auburn play with purpose and stop the bleeding vs. LSU?

After losing over and over with NCAA Tournament stakes on the line, the Tigers need to find some pride — and a way to win again.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — On Tuesday night, there will be more than just pride on the line for Auburn.

But pride itself might need to be the primary motivator, because NCAA Tournament stakes alone haven’t gotten the job done over the last couple of weeks.

Auburn will host LSU on Tuesday night for its final home game of what has been a challenging and disappointing season. It’ll be an extremely late night at Neville Arena, as the powers that be have set this game to tipoff at 9 p.m. local time on a night when it’s trying to jam as many SEC games into the TV listings as possible.

The tip time has been set for months now, and it was well before anyone knew that Auburn was going to play itself onto and then off of the NCAA Tournament bubble — or that LSU was going to struggle through another brutal season in SEC play.

It will be another announced sellout inside Neville Arena. But it’ll be a struggle to get close to a capacity crowd, between the tip time and Auburn’s late-season slide.

Even after a 1-6 February, an Auburn team that is 6-10 in the SEC and just 15-14 overall still has a path to snag an NCAA Tournament bid.

“We're still in control of our own destiny,” head coach Steven Pearl said Monday. “If you win these next two, you're probably in. Regardless, you have to take it one game at a time. We've got to do everything we can to beat LSU.”

There’s no such thing as an easy matchup for a team that has lost seven of its last eight games, including three straight to teams that aren’t projected to make the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn had a chance to stay off the bubble at struggling Mississippi State and lost. Auburn had a chance to maintain momentum after a last-second win with a game at struggling Oklahoma and lost.

And Auburn had a chance to stay in the field at home against a massively struggling Ole Miss team that had lost 10 straight and lost.

Because of that loss, Auburn has to win Tuesday night against LSU not only to keep its greatly diminished chances of dancing alive — but also to avoid finishing this season with a losing home SEC record.

Yes, Auburn is 4-4 in conference play inside Neville Arena, which had been widely regarded as one of the strongest home-court advantages in college basketball.

In this building, Auburn saw its buzzer-beater miracle against Texas A&M wiped away, blew a sizable first-half advantage to rival Alabama, got thoroughly outplayed by Vanderbilt and dropped an inexcusable one to Ole Miss by losing multiple leads.

Auburn hasn’t had a losing SEC record at home since the last time it missed the NCAA Tournament, back in the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season. The last time it did that with full crowds? That was 2016-17 — before the Tigers ended their tourney drought.

Tuesday night is Senior Night. Auburn only has two regular players who are guaranteed to be in their final game inside Neville Arena: Keyshawn Hall and KeShawn Murphy. There will, undoubtedly, be others on this roster.

It’s nowhere near the stakes of a rivalry finale with Alabama for an Auburn team that had already clinched an SEC championship and was on its way to a No. 1 overall seed. But these Tigers, because of how the schedule broke, have a chance to do one positive thing the legendary last bunch didn’t: Win their final game inside Neville.

Beating LSU has also just been a standard for this Auburn team in recent seasons. Auburn has won four straight over LSU and five straight home matchups in the series. LSU hasn’t won in Auburn since Ben Simmons had a 21-12-7 stat line back in 2016.

How’s that for some pride on the line?