Auburn, Alary. – In win or loss, No. 20 Auburn coach Steven Pearl takes a balanced approach.
The Tigers won two of three games at last week’s Players Era event in Las Vegas, with victories over Oregon and No. 14 St. John’s leading to a loss to No. 7 Michigan before Wednesday’s ACC/SEC Challenge visit of NC State.
“Just like the Michigan game, you can’t get too low because you have to react and prepare for the next one,” Pearl said. “We can’t get too high after beating a good St. John’s team because you have an NC State team tomorrow that’s going to be (upset) because they went 1-2 in Maui and were probably the best team there.”
This will be the Wolfpack’s first true road game, even though they traveled nearly 10,000 miles round trip from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Hawaii.
Led by former LSU coach Will Wade, the Wolfpack lost to Seton Hall and Texas in the Maui Invitational by defeating Boise State.
“I told our guys they were going to play with a different level of effort and energy than they played with all year,” Pearl said. “They’re going to have their backs against the wall, their hair is going to be on fire and they’re going to consider this a must-win game.”
With a midweek tip at 8:15 p.m. CT, Pearl encouraged season ticket holders to make sure someone is in their seat dressed in orange and blue.
“People who have season tickets and can’t come, please forward your tickets to a friend or anyone, to me, and I’ll find a way to distribute them to someone,” he said. “We need to fill these things up for this game. It’s our second-to-last home game before conference play, so we need a full house tomorrow night.
“I know our students are going to be excited, ready to go. It should be a fun environment against a really good team.”
NC State averages 11.3 3-pointers per game while shooting 42.2 percent, a challenge that Auburn’s Kevin Overton personally embraces.
“It’s something I’m proud of,” said Overton, who will have the opportunity to defend his former Texas Tech teammate Darrion Williams, the Wolfpack’s leading scorer (18.7). “I don’t think I’ve seen in my few years of playing college basketball a team shoot as well as they do right now across the board.”
Auburn’s non-conference schedule features four teams currently ranked in the top 10: No. 1 Purdue, No. 2 Arizona, No. 3 Michigan and No. 8 Houston.
The Tigers will travel to Tucson on Saturday night to take on the second-ranked Wildcats.
“We have an incredible opportunity this week to play two high-powered offenses,” Pearl said, “to sit back and guard and see what we are capable of.”
Conference bragging rights are on the line when No. 20 Auburn (6-2) hosts NC State (5-2) Wednesday at 8:20 p.m. CT on ESPN and Auburn Sports Network, where Andy Burcham and Randall Dickey will bring the action to listeners.
Jeff Shearer is a senior writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer
