Auburn’s season, one that looked to be headed toward a winless SEC slate, received a shot in the arm last week.

It came in the form of a 15-point win over South Carolina on the road, one in which the young Tigers legitimately outplayed a superior — on paper — foe for the majority of a 40-minute game.
Auburn coach Tony Barbee said a win’s always good for what ails you.

“Any time you can get the win so (the players) understand as I’m making them work, driving them, and driving them a little bit crazy, there’s a reward at the end if they keep plugging away,” Barbee said after the win.

Now comes the hard part: maintaining that against another tough opponent when the Tigers (8-13, 1-6 SEC) welcome Tennessee (14-7, 4-2) to Auburn Arena tonight at 8, a game that will be televised on ESPN2 (Channel 32 in Lee County).

After hitting a rough spot in the middle of the season, the Volunteers have righted the ship, with their only loss in the past five games coming against No. 6 Connecticut.

Tennessee has two starters — junior guard Scotty Hopson (16.5 ppg) and freshman forward Tobias Harris (14.7 ppg) — outscoring Earnest Ross (12.7 ppg), the Tigers’ top scorer.

Even though the Volunteers will be without head coach Bruce Pearl as he serves an eight-game, SEC-mandated suspension for misleading NCAA investigators, Barbee said his team is in for a battle.

“Tennessee is a very tough and very talented squad who seems to have hit its stride over the last five games,” Barbee said. “At least on paper and we’ve watched them on film, they are as big as any team that I have seen in college basketball over the last few years in regard to their bigs being very tall and very physical. It’s going to present another challenge because of how talented they are.”

Barbee got the type of game he’d been looking for out of one of Auburn’s “bigs” all year in the South Carolina win when 6-foot-10 Rob Chubb went off for a career-high 18 points.

Chubb demanded the ball in the post from the start of the game and went up with authority every time the Tigers fed him.

And he did it all in a set of shoes borrowed from the Gamecocks.

“If I had known that he didn’t bring his shoes before the game, he wouldn’t have started,” Barbee said. “I might not have played him. My assistant coaches did a good job of keeping that away from me.

“Rob is a developing player. His confidence is growing. He has the skill that he has continued to improve on. If you get him one-on-one, he is good enough that he can beat you.”

It’s safe to say the rest of the Tigers are “developing” as well.

And, after a brutal start to the conference season, they’re starting to see some of the benefits.

“There is no secret the level of the program that I have taken over. This being the first year, this is a major rebuilding project,” Barbee said. “In every game we’ve played this year, we’ve been the underdog based on talent level.

“We just haven’t quite gotten over the hump so hopefully us getting over the hump against South Carolina will carry us on to some more victories down the stretch.”

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