Auburn Basketball: What is the ceiling for Tigers in 2021-22?

With conference play set to begin later this month in the SEC, a general view of how the conference may look overall from top-to-bottom has already taken some shape across the last 1-2 months. When looking at the landscape of the SEC so far, there are few teams who have stuck out more than Auburn Basketball.

Owning an 8-1 record on the year entering play on Tuesday, the Tigers have begun to pile up impressive wins as they continue to rise up the Top 25, even sitting as the No. 13 team nationally at the time of writing.

Holding wins over the likes of Loyola-Chicago, Syracuse, UCF, and Morehead State, the name brand of the Tigers opponents certainly stick out on their resume, but that isn’t the most impressive thing about Auburn’s resume so far – it’s how they’re doing it.

For example, five of Auburn’s eight wins have come by a margin of 20+ points, with a few of those games seemingly already decided within minutes after the opening tip. The Tigers are also averaging an impressive 84.2 PPG for the year (11th in the country), as well as only allowing 67.4 PPG, and are rated as a Top 20 team nationally in both offensive and defensive efficiency according to KenPom.

Now yes, you could certainly argue that the non-conference schedule for the Tigers hasn’t been the most challenging compared to a few other teams in the SEC, but it has still included some tough opponents. Already having had success so far, where will the Tigers go from here, and what exactly is their ceiling?