Texas A&M males’s basketball will face its hardest take a look at of the season because it heads to Auburn to tackle the #1 ranked Tigers at 11:00 AM on Saturday. Nevermind the truth that the Aggies are at present within the midst of a seven-game shedding streak after beginning SEC plan 4-0. You can even disregard the truth that Auburn shall be searching for blood after being upset in extra time by Arkansas on Tuesday night time, that means that the Tigers will probably lose their #1 rating on Monday when the brand new polls are posted. Pay no consideration to the truth that an already raucous Auburn Enviornment shall be ROCKING with ESPN’s School Gameday crew in the home for a nationally televised sport on ESPN.

Why? Why does none of that matter? As a result of Auburn is GOOD. They’ve acquired dimension, they’re athletic as hell, they play nice protection, they rating, they don’t flip the ball over. Bruce Pearl has been constructing this program for seven seasons, and in his eighth it seems to have reached its last type. The Tigers are sixteenth nationally in adjusted offensive effectivity and eleventh in adjusted defensive effectivity. They pressure their opponents into robust photographs after which reject these photographs at a frequence that leads the nation. On the offensive aspect, the Tigers are simply outdoors the highest 10% in turning the ball over, whereas they’re within the high 20% of groups in forcing turnovers defensively.

The oddsmakers at DraftKings Sportsbook have the Aggies as 11.5 level underdogs* on the highway. Kenpom.com offers A&M a win chance of simply 10%.

* Odds/traces topic to vary. T&Cs apply. See draftkings.com/sportsbook for particulars.

Auburn is 22-2 on the season and 10-1 in SEC play. Each losses to UConn (115-109) and Arkansas (80-76) have are available in extra time. Their common margin of victory in ten convention wins is 11.5 factors. Freshman Jabari Smith is the premier participant for the Tigers and a contender for nationwide participant of the yr. The 6’10” ahead averages 15.5 factors per sport, shoots higher than 40% from past the arc on 122 makes an attempt, is within the high 500 gamers nationally in each steal fee and block fee, and hits 81% of his free throws. He additionally pulls down simply shy of seven boards per sport for good measure. Take pleasure in getting to observe a particular expertise as a result of that is the one time the Aggies face the Tigers within the common season and Smith will virtually definitely be enjoying within the NBA subsequent yr.

If all appears to be like misplaced for the Aggies, the place can one discover a glimmer of hope? Auburn hasn’t appeared its finest these days, particularly in opposition to “lesser” competitors. The Tigers pulled out a one level victory at Missouri and a two level victory at Georgia earlier than falling to Arkansas this week. Perhaps the Tigers get bored and play with their meals a bit, or perhaps that’s symptomatic of a high staff getting everybody’s finest shot. The system for beating Auburn seems to be a basic one – get a sizzling capturing night time, pressure turnovers and grind the sport out defensively, crash the boards, and hope that among the best groups within the nation goes chilly from the ground and the free throw line.

If this doesn’t go nicely for the Aggies, pray for Josh Chambers, A&M’s Director of Artistic and social media supervisor. Auburn followers have taken to replying with “memes” on the opposing staff’s postgame social media put up. The quotations across the aforementioned memes are vital as a result of they’re largely horrible and have continued to show Auburn as one of the comedically challenged fanbases within the nation.