3. Auburn (7-1)
No team in the nation had a more productive November than Auburn. Bruce Pearl and his squad won a huge game in Houston then won the Maui Invitational with a slew of impressive victories. The Tigers look not just like a top team in the SEC again, but perhaps a top team in the entire nation after the work they’ve put in. However, we weren’t exactly expecting them to be perfect this season.
At some point, Auburn will get one of these high profile games at home, because they were on the road this past week, playing in Durham as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge. The Tigers dropped their first game of the season, losing 84-78 to Duke in a tough defensive effort. Johni Broome was brilliant as always with 20 points and 12 rebounds while Tahaad Pettiford dropped another 20 points off the bench, though they came up short on the road.
This was the first time that Auburn’s defense really struggled all year, giving up 84 points and getting pushed quite a bit inside the arc. The long ball battered them early and they just couldn’t get over the hump late, but there’s not a ton to complain about here. Auburn is in fantastic shape for the rest of this season as long as Broome and the others keep producing. A date with Ohio State awaits as next week’s challenge.