AUBURN, Ala. (EETV) - For the first time in the 116-year program history, the Auburn Men’s Basketball team is ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Top-25 poll.
The ranking comes after being ranked No. 2 in the pole last week. The Tigers were just four points back from Gonzaga with a score of 1486-1482. The Tigers also had 11 more first-place points than the Zags.
The Tigers beat Georgia by 23 points on Wednesday and followed it up by defeating No. 12 Kentucky in the only matchup between top-12 teams in Auburn Arena history.
“It is historic and it does matter and it does mean something,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “It doesn’t mean much right now but it still makes a very strong statement. We want to have the number one business school, we want to have the number one engineering school, we want the number one football team and gymnastics team. We’re an everything school.”
The Tigers boast the countries best record standing at 18-1 (570). To go along with the best record the Tigers also boast the longest win streak in college basketball, winning 15 straight. The squad has five Quad One wins, which is good for fourth in division one hoops.
This is not the first time Auburn has climbed high in the polls, the Tigers have been ranked No. 2 three times in program history. The first coming in 1959, while they also reached the same mark in both 1999 and 2000.
The No. 1 ranking adds more to Bruce Pearl’s legacy at Auburn. Pearl took over a 14-16 Auburn team to start the 2014-15 season. Since then Pearl has gone 154-93, he led Auburn to their first Final 4 in 2019 in which they amassed 30 wins, a school record. Pearl has also led Auburn to two conference championships, a regular-season championship in 2018 and a tournament championship in 2019.
The Tigers will go on the road Wednesday to defend their No. 1 rank against the Missouri Tigers. The game is set to tipoff at 7:30 P.M. CST and can be watched on the SEC Network.
