The Auburn Tigers have an incredible opportunity today, and Stephen Pearl seems ready.

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Yes, welcome on into Lockdown, Auburn, your daily Auburn Tigers podcast.

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Special show today, because you won't hear for me hardly at all.

Gerald Dapbridge, our guy out there in Tucson covering this game.

During Auburn shoot around Friday night, he spoke with Stephen Pearl.

Here's that conversation.

Coach, you know that's the roster we've talked about at the beginning of the year,

the turnover, the new players.

You're about a fourth of the way through the season.

Kind of give the fans a state of the union on where you think this team is. Are they coming together like you thought? Are they ahead of where they were behind? Just kind of summarize for me. I think we're in a good spot right now. nine games in, you know, based on the opponents that we've played for this group to be seven and two,

you know, I feel like we're progressing in the right direction where there's still a ton of room to improve and grow, which I think is something that we are obviously, you know, excited about because, you know, even though we've won some, you know, beating NC State was a good win, but we were really sloppy in that game, you know, beating Oregon in a neutral was good, but we were pretty sloppy in that game, too. So, you know, I think there's a lot of room for this group to continue to grow and get better, and I think that's what gives us all encouragement, but also understanding that, you know, we got our hands full, you know, this next stretch of games, and then obviously we jump right into conference play. So groups jelling together pretty well.

Guys are getting along. We're starting to figure out our rotation and guys are getting more comfortable in the system. So, you know, right now we're in a solid spot, but, you know, we just got to continue to improve each and every week. Talking about that non-conference schedule, obviously last year was brutal and that it doesn't get very much easier this year. three and two against some of the power schools. You beat Oregon, you beat North Carolina State, great game against St. John's, I felt like it could be a turn in the season, especially that second half. What does that do for this team from a confident standpoint when you go into conference play, knowing you've played the best of the best? Yeah, I mean, you're not going to, one,

you're not going to play anyone that's any better than what we've already played. But then, two, you look at the environment that we're about to play in tomorrow. We're not going to go into any arenas that's going to catch us off guard because, you know, having the opportunity to play here is one that, you know, I think will serve us well down the road, and will give us an opportunity to play against the best in one of the toughest home court environments in college basketball. So you do it for a purpose. You do it one. So obviously help build your resume, but two, to help get you ready for SEC play. And, you know, that's what this thing is going to hopefully accomplish for us. The ACC, SEC challenge is pretty cool because for years, and especially when you played, the

ACC was the standard for basketball.

The fact that you guys won the game that clinched the SEC winning that invitation of going

97 and beating a North Carolina state team coached by Will Wade.

Talk about how that helps as far as a springboard coming into this game.

Yeah, I actually didn't know that we were the ones that clenched it. So that's a positive because we obviously didn't hold up around of the bargain last year at Duke. So, you know, obviously it was more focused on us more than anything. We had to win that game for Auburn. And, you know, it's obviously a benefit to the SEC that we wanted as well. But for us, we just had to focus on us and try and get better the things that we got to continue to improve on. So, you know, it was one that I think we had to have, you know, just knowing that we're coming in playing two road games against the top two teams in college basketball over these next couple weeks. So knew we had to get that one because that was an important one. And, you know, I think tomorrow, you know, it's really, for us, it's about just kind of seeing where we're at.

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