{"id":130286,"date":"2026-01-24T11:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/130286\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T11:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T11:22:08","slug":"steven-pearl-previews-florida-basketball-ahead-of-primetime-matchup-with-auburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/130286\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Pearl previews Florida basketball ahead of primetime matchup with Auburn"},"content":{"rendered":"

After reaching a .500 winning percentage in SEC play after its victory over Ole Miss, Auburn basketball<\/a> (11-7,3-3) prepares to face the reigning national champion Florida Gators. <\/p>\n

Florida beat Auburn twice last season, by nine and six points, the latter of which ended Auburn\u2019s season in the 2025 Final Four. The Gators are currently ranked No. 16 in this week\u2019s AP top 25 poll and sits at 14-5 overall and 5-1 in SEC play. <\/p>\n

Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. on ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother great opportunity against another great team. We seem to be catching teams at their best. Florida\u2019s playing really good basketball. Won five straight. Best team in our league, I think, by a pretty significant margin. Coach Golden has shown to be probably the best coach in our league right now,\u201d Auburn coach Steven Pearl said Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a chance for our guys to go on the road and see what we\u2019ve got against a team that\u2019s got unbelievable size, especially three through five,\u201d Pearl added. \u201cOne of the most imposing, physical teams in college basketball. Probably the best rebounding team in the country. They play really well at home. They\u2019re starting to find their stride.\u201d <\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s frontcourt is led by returning contributors Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Alex Condon. The Gators rank second in the country averaging 46.5 rebounds per game and Haugh leads the team in scoring with 16.9 points per game. <\/p>\n

\"ThomasFlorida’s Thomas Haugh (10) celebrates after making a basket while being fouled against Auburn during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo\/Eric Gay)AP<\/p>\n

Pearl talked about the impact Haugh has on this team after he dominated the Tigers last year against NBA talents such as Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell. <\/p>\n

Haugh is also shooting a team-high 46.7% from the floor, his name has slowly gained traction with NBA scouts and analysts, appearing in several mock drafts. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis progression from the time he was a freshman to where he\u2019s at now just speaks volumes of what the staff and Todd (Golden) have done for him,\u201d Pearl said. \u201cAnd he plays like he\u2019s trying to reward them every night, which is pretty cool. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he\u2019s a handful, and he just makes the right play all the time. He\u2019s going to be out there the entire game. So, we just got to try and limit his effective and positive plays as much as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entering the season, the majority of Florida\u2019s hype surrounded its backcourt after a pair of transfer portal pickups: Boogie Fland (Arkansas) and Xaivian Lee (Princeton). <\/p>\n

Both got off to slow starts in non-conference play. However, Fland leads the Gators with 3.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game. <\/p>\n

Lee and Fland each average 11.4 points per game. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen those guys are making shots, they\u2019re a different basketball team, and they\u2019ve shown over the last five that they\u2019re capable of doing so, and they\u2019re just, I think they\u2019re just more comfortable,\u201d Pearl said. \u201cTwo new guards having to play with that many bigs, it takes time to kind of get to know one another.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re defending national champions, like every single night, you\u2019re going to get everyone\u2019s best shot,\u201d Pearl added. \u201cI think they\u2019re being more so the hunter as of late than the hunted, and that\u2019s why they\u2019ve won five straight, and are in the position that they\u2019re in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After reaching a .500 winning percentage in SEC play after its victory over Ole Miss, Auburn basketball (11-7,3-3)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,11474],"class_list":{"0":"post-130286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-headlines","10":"tag-florida-news","11":"tag-ncaa-tournament"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}