Can Auburn win a rematch with Ole Miss, a team of extremes?
It's hard to beat a good team twice, and Auburn played great in its first game vs. Ole Miss. You know what you'll get from the Rebels.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — If the old adage “it’s tough to beat a good team twice” holds true, Auburn is going to have its hands full Wednesday night at Neville Arena.
Even though Ole Miss followed up its 4-0 start to SEC play by losing six out of its last 10 games — including each of its last two — No. 1 Auburn knows sweeping the season series won’t be easy against the newly unranked Rebels.
Auburn’s 92-82 victory at Ole Miss to open February may not have been its best performance of the season. (Apologies to Chris Beard.) But, as Bruce Pearl said Tuesday, the Tigers played a high-caliber game of basketball that night.
“I thought one of our best efforts all year long was at Ole Miss,” Pearl said. “I didn't realize how well we had played until two things happened: One, Coach Beard talked after the game about, ‘Boy, those guys really played well, made shots.’ Based on his evaluation of how we were playing going in and how we played in that game, he was right.
“We didn't necessarily feel it at the time. I thought we sustained some great runs. But we shot it exceptionally well and played exceptionally well.”
Yes, Ole Miss has lost more games than it’s won since its statement victory over Alabama in Coleman Coliseum on January 14 — one of the best wins of the season for any team, in Pearl’s view. None of those defeats have been cheap or bad-looking losses, though.
Mississippi State beat the Rebels by three in overtime at home, then held on for a 10-point win in the rematch on the road. Texas A&M won by one in the final seconds in Oxford. Missouri, a team that has been nearly impossible to beat at home, won by eight.
And, in addition to Auburn’s well-played victory, Vanderbilt blew a commanding lead but held on late to beat Ole Miss by five at the upset cauldron of Memorial Gymnasium last Saturday.
Don’t let their current form or absence from the Top 25 fool you. Ole Miss presents plenty of danger, especially for an Auburn team trying to hunt an SEC championship.
“We take a lot from the first game because, you know, you throw your best stuff at them,” Pearl said. “If we play as well as we did in Oxford, we'll win. But that was one of our best games. But you learn a great deal, you know, of what you did well, what you didn't do well, and then just try to anticipate what adjustments you need to make — and then anticipate what adjustments you think that Ole Miss is gonna make.”