Auburn HC Bruce Pearl doesn’t see benefit in loss to No. 6 Florida
There’s a long-held belief in sports that sometimes a “wake-up call” is needed for great teams. Perhaps they become so good that they tend to get a bit content, like a lazy fat cat on top of a heap of warm laundry.
That’s at least the narrative the media likes to spin when a great team is upset, but Auburn’s Bruce Pearl wasn’t having any of that recently. His No. 1-ranked Tigers recently suffered a loss at the hands of No. 6 Florida at home, 90-81.
Auburn “bounced back” from that game and went on to beat Vanderbilt by 12 in the very next one, but it had nothing to do with being “woken up” by Florida. At least that’s how Pearl saw it after the game against the Commodores on Tuesday night.
“I honestly don’t think it had any effect,” Pearl said of the loss to Florida and it’s impact on the win over Vanderbilt (h/t On3). “I thought Florida beat us, I thought Florida was better… I thought their front line was more active, bouncier. I thought Florida was better. We may see them again down the road, that’s a Final Four team. I don’t think it was like ‘Well, I’m glad we got that loss out of the way now.’ Like, what are you talking about? Have you seen our schedule?”
The SEC is packed this season. Auburn is still No. 1, but Alabama is right behind at No. 2 and the Crimson Tide are up next on the schedule. Florida, Tennessee and Texas A&M are all top 10 teams, while Kentucky, Ole Miss, Missouri and Mississippi State all slide in within the top 25.
The Tigers still have seven SEC games left, including two against Alabama, so at this point of the season, no loss serves a purpose. It’s all about winning, all the time in the SEC, and if you lose, it’s tough to spin that into a positive.
“It’s just about taking it one game at a time,” Pearl explained. “So far, this team has done a pretty good job of taking it one at a time and we’ve learned a lot from our wins. Florida beat us because they were better.”
