Auburn Daily

Auburn Tigers vs. Ole Miss Rebels Preview SEC Tournament, How to Watch

The Auburn Tigers look to win their second-straight SEC Tournament as they begin action on Friday vs. Ole Miss.

Auburn Daily Staff

SEC Player of the Year Johni Broome and the defending champion Auburn Tigers open SEC Tournament play on Friday.
SEC Player of the Year Johni Broome and the defending champion Auburn Tigers open SEC Tournament play on Friday. / Photo by Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers
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#1 Auburn Tigers (27-4) vs. #8 Ole Miss (22-10)
SEC Tournament Quarterfinals
March 14, 2025 at Noon (CT)
Bridgestone Arena (18,500) | Nashville, Tenn.

Television: ESPN
Play-By-Play: Dan Shulman
Color Analyst: Jay Bilas
Sideline Reporter: Jess Sims

Radio: Auburn Sports Network
Play-By-Play: Andy Burcham
Color Analyst: Randall Dickey

» Top-seeded Auburn (27-4) opens SEC Tournament play against eighth-seeded Ole Miss (21-10) in Friday’s first quarterfinal game at Bridgestone Arena.

» The Rebels advanced to the quarterfinals to face Auburn after a thrilling 83-80 win over Arkansas. Forward Malik Dia led the Rebels with 19 points, eight rebounds and three steals.

» The Tigers compiled a 15-3 record in regular-season play to earn the No. 1 seed.

» Auburn is looking to repeat as SEC Tournament champions after winning its third SEC Tournament title in program history and second under head coach Bruce Pearl a year ago in Nashville. The Tigers also won the tournament title in 1985 and 2019.

» Since 2018, Auburn has won three SEC regular-season championships and two tournament titles, which leads the league for overall championships over that span.

» Bruce Pearl and C.M. Newton, who won two Associated Press SEC Coach of the Year honors at Alabama and Vanderbilt, are the only head coaches to win the award at two different league schools. Pearl, who won the award in 2006 and 2008 at Tennessee and twice at Auburn in 2022 and 2025, is tied with Newton for the second-most AP SEC Coach of the Year awards all-time, one behind Adolph Rupp’s five at Kentucky.

» Johni Broome was honored as SEC Player of the Year by the Associated Press and the league’s coaches this week. Broome joins Charles Barkley (1984) and Chris Porter (1999) as the only Tigers to win the AP honor.

» Auburn matched program records with the 2021-22 squad with 15 SEC wins and 27 regular-season wins.

» Auburn, which had been ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll for eight-straight weeks, is one of only two SEC teams to ever be ranked first for at least six-straight weeks in the AP Poll, joining Kentucky. The Tigers are No. 3 in both national polls behind Duke and Houston.

» The Tigers have been ranked for 32-consecutive weeks, which is the seventh-longest active streak in the country and matches the longest streak in program history. Four of Auburn’s five longest ranked streaks in program history have come since January 2018. Friday’s contest is the 55th-straight game the Tigers have played as a ranked team.

A LOOK AT THE TOURNAMENT FIELD

» Auburn went 4-0 against its potential quarterfinals opponents (Ole Miss, Arkansas and South Carolina). Three of the four games were decided by 10 points or less and all three of those were within a couple of possessions in the final two minutes.

» No. 1 Auburn, No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Alabama and No. 4 Tennessee all received double-byes.

» Thirteen of the other 15 teams in the field represent Quad 1 opportunities. Only LSU and South Carolina are Quad 2.

» Auburn and Alabama have each won an SEC-best two SEC Tournaments since 2019. The rest of the league has won just one during that time – Tennessee in 2022.

» Since the resumption of the SEC Tournament in 1979, Auburn is looking to join Alabama, Florida and Kentucky as the only teams to win the regular-season and tournament title during the same season.

» Bridgestone Arena has been the home of the three of the most memorable SEC Tournament runs in Auburn Basketball history. During Coach Pearl’s first season in 2015, Auburn won three games in three days to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2009. The Tigers defeated Mississippi State, Texas A&M and LSU. KT Harrell hit a game-tying, buzzer-beater 3-pointer to send the LSU game to overtime.

» Auburn also won the 2019 (Missouri, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee) and 2024 (South Carolina, Mississippi State and Florida) tournament titles in Bridgestone Arena.

TIGERS IN THE MUSIC CITY

» Auburn is 35-64 (.354) all-time when playing in Nashville. The Tigers are 13-10 in SEC Tournament games in the Music City, 20-52 at Vanderbilt, 1-0 vs. Dartmouth, 1-0 vs. Saint Louis, 0-1 vs. Middle Tennessee and 0-1 vs. Western Kentucky in Nashville.

» When Auburn opens SEC Tournament action, the Tigers will be making their second appearance of the season in Nashville after winning 80-68 at Vanderbilt behind 21 points from Denver Jones and Chaney Johnson’s 20 points on Feb. 11 at Memorial Gym.

SERIES HISTORY vs. Ole Miss

» Auburn leads 85-64 in the all-time series with Ole Miss including three-straight home-and-home season sweeps. The top-ranked Tigers won 92-82 at No. 23 Ole Miss as Johni Broome recorded a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds along with four assists and two blocks and won 106-76 behind 24 points and nine rebounds from Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara's 22 points on Feb. 26 at Neville Arena. However, the Rebels hold a 2-1 advantage in SEC Tournament games.

» Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl is 17-1 against Ole Miss including 12-9 during his time on the Plains, which includes eight-straight wins. He has never led the Tigers against the Rebels in the SEC Tournament, but he guided Tennessee to a 76-65 victory over Ole Miss in the 2010 quarterfinals at Bridgestone Arena.

» Pearl is 5-0 against Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard including 4-0 in matchups between Auburn and Ole Miss. He led Auburn to a 67-65 win over Texas Tech and Beard at the 2016 Cancun Challenge in Cancun, Mexico.

IT’S AWARDS SEASON

» Johni Broome joined Charles Barkley (1984) and Chris Porter (1999) as the only Tigers to be named the AP SEC Player of the Year and was an All-SEC First Team pick.

» Chad Baker-Mazara was an All-SEC Third Team selection, while Denver Jones earned a spot on the SEC All-Defensive Team and Tahaad Pettiford on the SEC All-Freshman Team.

» Auburn was the only team to have a first-team member, a player on the all-defensive team and an all-freshman selection.

» Additionally, Broome became the program’s first National Player of the Year honoree by any news organization on March 12 as the Sporting News National College Player of the Year. He was also tabbed a unanimous First Team All-America by the Sporting News – making him just the second two-time All-American in program history next to Chuck Person, who was honored in back-to-back seasons in 1984-85 and 1985-86.

» Heading into the SEC Tournament, Denver Jones was chosen as a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award on March 12. He is just the third player in program history next to Walker Kessler (2022) and Broome (2024) to make the 10-player cut for the prestigious defensive award.

AUBURN IN THE SEC TOURNAMENT

» Auburn is 37-57 (.394) all-time in the SEC Tournament. The Tigers have won three SEC Tournament titles including two under head coach Bruce Pearl in 2019 and 2024.

»Auburn's first tournament championship came in 1985 when the Tigers became the first team to win four games in four days to take home the crown with a 53-49 overtime victory over Alabama in the championship game under legendary head coach Sonny Smith.

» With a win, Auburn would advance to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament for the 15th time in school history including the fourth time under Pearl (2015, 2019 and 2024).

» The Tigers may be 5-9 lifetime in the semifinals but have won their last two semifinal appearances. Auburn has advanced to the championship game on five occasions with three championships in the trophy case (1985, 2019 and 2024).

TIGERS LOOKING FOR CONSECUTIVE TITLES

» Auburn is looking to become the first back-to-back SEC Tournament champion since Kentucky won four-straight tournament titles from 2015-18. The Wildcats have won at least two-straight tournament titles seven times.

» Other than the Wildcats, the only teams that have won SEC Tournament titles in consecutive seasons are Alabama (1989-91) and Florida (2005-07).

»The Tigers are looking to hoist the SEC regular-season and tournament trophies during the same season for the first time in program history. Archrival Alabama was the last league team to win both titles in the same season in 2023.

BRUCE PEARL IN THE SEC TOURNAMENT

» Auburn is 10-6 in the SEC Tournament under Bruce Pearl including tournament titles in 2019 and 2024.

» With a win in the quarterfinals, Pearl would match Sonny Smith, who led Auburn to the program’s first tournament title in 1985 and an 11-10 record in 11 SEC Tournament appearances from 1979-89, for the most SEC Tournament wins in program history.

» Pearl, who was 6-6 in six SEC Tournament appearances at Tennessee, is 16-12 in the SEC Tournament overall. His 16 SEC Tournament victories are tied with Rick Stansbury, who led Mississippi State to 16 victories in 14 appearances from 1999-2012, for the seventh-most tournament wins since the tournament’s renewal in 1979. It is second-most among active SEC coaches behind John Calipari's 24 tournament victories. Rick Barnes (11) is the only other active SEC head coach with more than six tournament victories.

Coach School Wins
Billy Donovan Florida 27
Wimp Sanderson Alabama 25
John Calipari Kentucky 24
Tubby Smith Georgia/UK 24
Rick Pitino Kentucky 17
Hugh Durham Georgia 17
Bruce Pearl UT/Auburn 16
Rick Stansbury Auburn 16
Kevin Stallings Vanderbilt 14
Nolan Richardson Arkansas 14

ALL-TIME SEC TOURNAMENT RECORD BY OPPONENT

South Carolina 4-1 (.800)
Vanderbilt 6-2 (.750)
Tulane 2-1 (.667)
Florida 5-4 (.556)
Mississippi State 3-2 (.600)
Missouri 1-1 (.500)
LSU 4-5 (.444)
Georgia 3-5 (.375)
Ole Miss 1-2 (.333)
Texas A&M 1-2 (.333)
Tennessee 4-9 (.308)
Alabama 2-8 (.200)
Kentucky 1-13 (.071)
Arkansas 0-2 (.000)

Totals 37-57 (.394)

PLAYER TO WATCH: JOHNI BROOME

» Senior big man Johni Broome joined Charles Barkley (1984) and Chris Porter (1999) as the only Tigers to earn SEC Player of the Year honors from the Associated Press.

» He is the only player in NCAA Division I men’s basketball history to record 2,500 points, 1,500 rebounds and 400 blocks in his career.

» Broome ended the regular season averaging 18.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. His 17 double-doubles this season are one off Mike Mitchell’s school record from the 1974-75 season.

» Broome is making his third SEC Tournament appearance and was crowned the Most Valuable Player of last year’s tournament.

» This season, he led the Tigers to a No. 1 national ranking for a school-record eight consecutive weeks, 16 Quad 1 wins, the 2024 Maui Invitational crown and the program’s fifth Southeastern Conference title (regular season or tournament) over the last eight seasons.

» The SEC Player of the Year (coaches and AP) and two-time All-SEC First Team selection was also recently recognized as the National College Player of the Year by the Sporting News, co-Player of the Year by the Field of 68 Network as well as Player of the Year by the NCAA’s Andy Katz and by Jon Rothstein for College Hoops Today.

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Auburn Daily Staff
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