ICYMI: Auburn slips and Florida surges

By Chris Marler

What was hyped as a blockbuster Saturday ended up falling flat, with most of the marquee matchups across college basketball failing to deliver. However, there were several great games around the SEC, and the answers to some of the league’s biggest questions have begun to be answered as we head into March.

The Auburn fall off needs to be studied

What the heck happened to Auburn? That feels like a question we usually ask every football season, but the former self proclaimed everything school is hearing that question across multiple sports and seasons on the plains.

Steven Pearl’s entire postgame press conference after Auburn’s loss to Ole Miss lasted just over 2.5 minutes:

– “I want to apologize to our fans.”
– “It’s a team that makes 4 threes a game & they made 10.”
– KeShawn Murphy didn’t start because he was late to a film session pic.twitter.com/MUvF4Ks2CO

— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) March 1, 2026

Just like Hugh Freeze’s morals, and nearly their entire roster from a year ago, the Auburn basketball team we saw in Gainesville, Florida on Jan. 24 has completely disappeared.

The Tigers beat Florida on the road for the first time in 30 years that day. Since then, they have been a shell of themselves, and that might be too generous of a way to describe it. They have lost seven of nine since that game, including seven of their last eight games. Their lone win during that stretch came by just one point in a game so heavily officiated that Mark Pope’s postgame comments resulted in a $25,000 fine.

Steven Pearl is probably a good basketball coach. Handing the reins over to the former head coach’s son just 42 days before the season started probably wasn’t the smartest move in hindsight. I think we can all agree that nepo baby hires in Alabama should strictly be limited to John Deere and Chevrolet dealerships and not big time college basketball.

One of the top defensive minds in college basketball is taking the reins.

🗞️: https://t.co/nUbT0n9B7K #WarEagle x @StevenPearl22 pic.twitter.com/xaKvUgHNZG

— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) September 22, 2025

Florida may very well be the best team in America

Last year’s Florida team was incredible. There’s a reason they won the SEC tournament in dominating fashion and the NCAA Tournament. This year’s team has been almost equally impressive.

The Gators are 14-2 in SEC play and have won nine in a row. They were fighting for a No. 4 seed in the tournament just a few weeks ago, and are now making a very legitimate claim to be a No. 1 seed in March once the tournament begins.

On Saturday the Gators hosted No. 20 Arkansas and the best player in the conference Darius Acuff. If you were like me and looked at Florida -10.5 thinking it was way too steep, well…turns out we were both very wrong. Florida won by 34.

Looking at Florida’s resumé will be fun when the selection committee makes the 68 team field. They have six losses on the season and that includes three to teams currently in the top six by 11 total points. Their losses to Duke by one, UConn by four, and Arizona by six to start the season seem like a distant memory. Their 14 wins in conference play have come by an average of 19.7 ppg and only two have come by single digits.

How much better is Florida than the other SEC basketball teams?

* The Gators are alone in 1st place.
* UF beat 2nd place Alabama 100-77.
* UF beat 3rd place Arkansas 111-77.
* UF beat Tenn., tied for 4th place 91-67.

Yes, they somehow lost twice, although it’s been a minute.…

— Frank Frangie (@Frank_Frangie) March 1, 2026

Game of the day

Alabama traveled to Knoxville, and did their best to squander their February momentum away.

The Tide had won seven straight coming into Saturday, and the winner of their game with Tennessee would all but assure a No. 2 seed in the SEC tournament. Tennessee played extremely tough defense and physically manhandled Alabama for most of the game. They allowed just 28 points in the first half, which was the fewest Alabama has scored in the opening 20 minutes in any game this year. They also held them to just 13 three point attempts, which was a season low for Alabama.

Tennessee also forced the Tide into double digit turnovers and out rebounded them by 17 (47 to 30), including 25 offensive rebounds to Alabama’s nine. None of that mattered.

Alabama came roaring back and tied it up with less than two minutes to go after trailing by 13 at one point in the second half. Labaron Philon had the moment of the night when he took the ball to the top of the key with 30 seconds left and saw a mismatch. His jumper in the lane gave Alabama their first lead of the night and it ultimately was the final score 71-69.