If anyone understands a chaotic stretch, it’s Auburn Tigers head coach Steven Pearl. After playing three straight games in Vegas and then returning to Alabama for the ACC/SEC Challenge, his team barely had time to breathe, let alone prepare. Facing a strong Arizona squad with almost no turnaround, the outcome felt unavoidable, and the Tigers paid the price for the exhausting schedule.

“I’m always going to look at myself first before I go to them. I put them in a really bad spot by playing this game. I’m just going to tell you what it is. This game was too much. We have one day to prep, and that day we couldn’t do anything because we had guys that played heavy minutes, so it was more film, and just like the mental side of things,” the head coach said.

The fatigue reflected in the Tigers’ game as well. While the Wildcats were nimble in movement and drew their sharp claws out, the Tigers were unable to sink their teeth in. The Wildcats shot 61% from the floor and dominated the paint, with Koa Peat (18 points) and Jaden Bradley (16 points) doing most of the damage. This naturally forced the HC to highlight what helped the Cats over the Tigers.

“We had to leave at noon the next day, so we had a 9 a.m. practice. There wasn’t a lot of time to get ready for that team. They had a week to get ready for us, so they did a great job of framing every entry pass that we had in our offense, and it really disrupted us, and it bothered us,” said Steven Pearl, recapitulating the heartbreaking loss against the Arizona Wildcats (97-68).

The entire game felt as if Auburn were helpless against Arizona. While the offense was doing damage, the defense was preventing it on their side. They held Auburn up for 51/2 minutes and did not allow a ball to pass through their hoop in open play during their 18/2 run. However, all was not lost as Tahaad Pettiford (30) and Keyshawn Hall (13) retorted with some swift comebacks.

Tahaad had a special game. He scored 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including 5 of 9 from the three-point line, but the others found it hard to match his tempo. And that is where the tight schedule played spoilsport for the team.

“We’re 10 games in. We’re 7-3, and we’ve probably played one of the hardest schedules in the country, so we can’t let one loss define us like we did against Michigan. Did a good job bouncing back in that one, but they’re going to look at our response on this one, so we got to bounce back quick,” concluded Coach Steven Pearl.

The team’s self-belief was already shattered after their last heavy loss against Michigan (102-72). They managed two wins after that, but this loss will again haunt the week-old wound.

Tahaad Pettiford joins exclusive club despite team loss

Tahaad Pettiford’s 30-point game made him part of quite an exclusive Tigers Club. He has become the 11th player to have broken into the list of elite athletes to cross that 30-mark line for Auburn. John Mengelt started the trend and had multiple 40-point games, and also a 60-point game, which still stands today.

This was followed by Eddie Johnson, Mike Mitchell, and Chuck Person, who also happens to be Auburn’s leading point scorer with 2311 points. Jared Harper was the last one to do it in 2019 against Kansas in a crucial Elite Eight competition.

Harper scored 31 points courtesy of 9-13 field goals, 7-11 three-pointers, 2 assists, and 3 rebounds. He also stayed on court for exactly 31 minutes, which makes it a goal every minute. Insane stat for a guy who was built on the shorter side to basketball standards -5’10”. Who else can join this list? Do let us know!