USC Basketball: Auburn Coach Speculates Trojans Game Could Be Costliest Non-Conference Clash Ever

Yowza!

When your USC Trojans men's basketball program heads to Alabama this weekend for a Sunday matinee against the Auburn Tigers (slated for 10 a.m. PT), it's going to cost local crowds a pretty penny.

Or, at least, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl thinks so, per Ainslee Lee of AL.com.

“It could be one of the hottest tickets in Neville Arena history for a nonconference game,” Pearl said during postgame remarks after a 87-62 victory over UNC-Asheville on Wednesday. “We’ll have to play better [than we did against UNC-Asheville] to win that one.”

At 5-4, Andy Enfield's Trojans have had an uneven start, especially considering that they boast one of the elite recruiting classes in the nation, topped by freshman guard Isaiah Collier, the No. 1-ranked player from among his high school class last season.

Lee writes that Sunday's clash marks the first time ever Auburn (currently 7-2 on the year) has played host to USC. At Neville Arena, Lee writes that the cheapest ticket was a standing room only-ticket fetching $98 on SeatGeek as of Thursday morning. The priciest, however, was $2,747, in section 111, as of Thursday.

Lee posits that the arrival of another freshman, four-star combo guard Bronny James out of Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth, is what has made this matchup such a hot ticket. In his collegiate debut last weekend, Bronny scored just four points, while grabbing two rebounds, dishing out two dimes, swiping two steals and rejecting one shot.

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