Bruce Pearl Provides Auburn Tigers Injury Update ahead of SEC Tournament

The Auburn Tigers play their first game in the SEC Tournament on Friday afternoon. They earned an extra-two days of rest and preparation by virtue of winning the SEC regular season championship.

Those extra days have seemingly paid off for head coach Bruce Pearl's squad, especially for starting point guard Denver Jones who missed Auburn's loss at Texas A&M and wasn't 100% against Alabama to close the season.

"I think everybody is banged up a little bit, but I think we're coming into it pretty healthy to be honest with you," Pearl said at his press conference on Wednesday. "In a sense that I think Denver (Jones) probably feels a little bit better. Chad probably feels a little bit better. Johni is getting back to 100%. Not to discount any of those injuries, but I do feel like 'gosh, we could be in a lot worse shape.'"

Auburn finished the season on a two-game-losing skid after clinching the SEC championship and No. 1 seed with two games to play. They'll play either Arkansas or Ole Miss on Friday afternoon, but Pearl said they've used their time this week to get right.

"We took Sunday off, and then we worked Monday, Tuesday and here on Wednesday just on us," said Pearl. "We've not been focusing on any opponent. We're not doing anything on the court or in film prior to when we find out who we play Thursday afternoon, except just working on ourselves."

Auburn will know relatively early on Thursday who their opponent will be on Friday afternoon. Ole Miss and Arkansas have the first game of the day in Nashville at 12:00 p.m. CT.

Focusing on themselves is the right strategy regardless of opponent. Auburn was the No. 1 team in the country for most of the year. They played arguably the hardest schedule in all of college basketball and won the hardest league with a two-game cushion.

If Auburn is playing their best basketball, they're not only the favorite in the SEC Tournament, they'll be a favorite in the NCAA Tournament.

This version of the Auburn Tigers is without much argument the best team ever to take the floor on the Plains. However, history will judge them by how successful they are over the course of the next month.

That journey begins Friday at noon in Nashville against the most-loaded conference field, maybe... ever.