What did Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl have to say before the Mississippi State game?
The No. 11 Auburn Tigers host the Mississippi State Bulldogs tomorrow inside Neville Arena.
What did Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl have to say before the game?
Pearl started off by talking about how monumental this game is for Auburn forward Jaylin Williams.
"Tomorrow’s game will be senior forward Jaylin Williams’ 135 career game," Pearl said. "He’ll be breaking the school record previously held by the great Frankie Sullivan and I say that will all due respect. Frankie was a great player here and he was a great member of my staff for a number of years when I first tried getting this thing started."
Pearl mentioned how this game could be a challenge.
"Mississippi State is the third-toughest team to come to Neville Arena this year with Alabama and Kentucky being the two toughest opponents we’ve had based on the NET rankings and Mississippi State is a NET 31, just one slot out of Quad 1," Pearl said. "So we’ll have our hands cut out for us. If you told me we’d go to Mississippi State and somehow contain Tolu Smith to nine points and eight rebounds, I would’ve told you we’d win that game."
Pearl gave an update on Williams' health.
"Jaylin felt fine. He’s 100 percent, we wouldn’t have played him if he wasn’t," Pearl said. "Probably played five more minutes than we thought he might play. In a tough environment, he’d been there before and he did fine, bounced back fine yesterday, had practice, no issues."
Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. CT. The television broadcast can be found on SEC Network and the Auburn Sports Network broadcast can be streamed anywhere on the Auburn Athletics app.
