“You score 91, you should be good enough to win. I don’t think we defended well enough. We didn’t rebound well enough.” said Bruce Pearl after his side lost to Auburn, their second loss in a row after sealing the SEC regular season championship. Have the Tigers taken their foot off the gas ? Are they really the best team in the country? Tough questions are piling up for Bruce Pearl, and the pressure from experts is only growing!

As Bruce Pearl pointed out, scoring 91 points and still losing is unacceptable. Auburn didn’t do themselves any favors after second-leading scorer Chad Baker-Mazara was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul on Alabama’s Chris Youngblood with over 10 minutes left. But the drama didn’t end there. CBM took to social media, calling out fans by saying “rent free” before deleting the post. The senior guard is showing signs of immaturity at the wrong time. This has led experts to question whether Auburn is really the team they thought they were.

Mike LaTulip compares Jon Scheyer’s Duke with Auburn and how they are the team he would trust more. In The Field Of 68: After Dark podcast, he says, “I trust Duke a lot, from a body language standpoint, they are militant with how they go about things and for Auburn it is really like a lot of times Chad Baker-Mazara …it’s the one thing I think that gives me pause about Auburn, it’s the stuff that gets him in trouble”

Chad Baker-Mazara has been one of Auburn’s best players this season, averaging 13 points and 3 rebounds per game. But this isn’t the first time he’s been ejected–and it probably won’t be the last. He did the same thing last year against Yale in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which cost Auburn the game. Bruce Pearl wasn’t happy about losing him again in a crucial game, saying “Chad can’t do that. This is his second time having it, and obviously we’re not as good a team without him”

This probably explains why LaTulip can’t trust CBM. There’s no doubt he’s a great player, but he makes crucial mistakes in big moments that cost Auburn dearly. He further reiterates on this by saying,” If Chad Baker Mazara makes those type of mental errors and gets himself tossed, teams are gonna make you pay. We saw it last season. If CBM doesn’t fix that, there’s a good chance Auburn won’t make a deep run in the Big Dance this year either.

But CBM’s antics aren’t the only thing Bruce Pearl has to worry about. There’s a bigger issue that needs fixing if they are to achieve their dream of winning their first NCAA championship. Let’s dive into that!

Bruce Pearl needs to fix his defense

Auburn has struggled with rebounding all season. The Tigers average 24 rebounds per game, ranking 71st in the country. But on the flip side, they’re also one of the best at limiting opponents on the glass, allowing just 20 rebounds per game. But the story has changed in the past few games.

In their last two games, they have heavily outrebounded. Something you don’t normally expect from Auburn.Texas A&M dominated them on the boards with a 41-25 advantage, including a massive 24 offensive rebounds. Alabama also had the upper hand, outrebounding Auburn by seven, 31-24, with a slight edge on the offensive glass, 10-9.

This has obviously directly contributed to their losses. They were one win away from creating SEC history by winning 16 games but they couldn’t due to this. As the big dance approaches, this is a chance for Bruce Pearl to work on his team’s rebounding and make sure that this worrying trend doesn’t continue in the future.

For now, the focus is on the SEC Tournament. They have a double-bye and won’t take the court again until Friday, where they’ll face either Ole Miss, South Carolina, or Arkansas in the quarterfinals. This is a chance for Bruce Pearl and his team to fix their defensive issues. It remains to be seen how the best team in the country will perform in the NCAA Tournament, but if they can put an end to this troubling trend of getting outrebounded, there’s no reason why the Tigers can’t make a deep run in March. Stay tuned for more updates!