The Stretch 4: "Next game, next fight" for Auburn at Tennessee

For the Tigers to extend their streak to an unexpected five, they'll have to win big battles with a physical and familiar foe in Knoxville.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — Steven Pearl knows how much two big road wins can change a season.

So does his alma mater.

On Saturday night, Auburn basketball will take its four-game winning streak — the longest in the SEC right now — and put it to the ultimate test at Tennessee.

Thompson Boling Arena is the fourth-largest home venue in Division I basketball. It’s roughly twice the size of the O’Connell Center at Florida, where Auburn ended a 30-year drought by knocking off the defending national champion a week ago.

It’s a place that Pearl knows all too well, as he played five seasons there for his father. It’s also a place where Auburn has lost three straight times, last getting a victory that would turn out to be the final game of the pandemic-stopped 2019-20 season.

Auburn vs. Tennessee has almost always been a thriller since Rick Barnes took over in Knoxville. And his defense has been a regular thorn in the Tigers’ side.

“We've had a hard time scoring on Tennessee,” Pearl said Friday, a few hours before leaving for snowy Knoxville. “I told our guys, ‘If you want to do something last year's team couldn't do, score more than 50 points on Tennessee.’”

Under Barnes, Tennessee has totaled more SEC wins (116) than total losses (115). Tennessee is one of just three schools to make the last three Sweet 16s — and one of three schools to make the last two Elite Eights.

While a Final Four appearance has eluded it, Tennessee has been right up there with Auburn as the class of the SEC in pretty much every other measurement of success.

And this Tennessee team has the makings of another one that could challenge for the league title and make a deep run in March. Like Auburn, it had to figure some things out after a roster reset, with only 17% of its scoring returning from a 2-seed squad.

Tennessee beat Houston at the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas in November to improve to 7-0, then shockingly dropped three straight games to Kansas, Syracuse and Illinois. The Volunteers later lost three of their first five games in SEC play.

But, you know how Auburn playing teams that are hot has been a consistent theme in recent weeks? Tennessee qualifies, as its last two games were a road win at Alabama and an overtime road victory over Georgia.

“Kind of like us last week when we won two on the road, it kind of changed the trajectory of their season,” Pearl said. “And they physically went in there and punked both teams.”

That style has been a constant for Barnes’ teams at Tennessee. The leading scorers and standout freshmen may change, but the physicality usually doesn’t.

Auburn knows full well what it takes to win that way in this league. The upset at Florida just seven days ago was a good blueprint for what it might have to take to win at Tennessee: Battling for all 40 minutes, particularly on defense and on the glass.

“Next game, next fight,” big man Filip Jović said Friday.

For a full breakdown of the matchup between Auburn and Tennessee in this primetime Saturday slot, here is this week’s edition of The Stretch 4 preview.