Auburn men’s basketball fell back to earth a little bit Saturday afternoon.

The No. 1-ranked Tigers lost at home to now No. 3 Florida, snapping a 14-game winning streak and blemishing a perfect Southeastern Conference record.

What’s next? Auburn has what the rankings and metrics suggest would be an easier game against Vanderbilt, but the Commodores have been arguably the SEC’s biggest spoiler this season.

Vanderbilt currently sits 17-6 (5-5 SEC) and has home wins over Tennessee and Kentucky. When looking at where the game falls on the schedule, it presents itself as somewhat of a trap game for Auburn, coming between games against Florida and Alabama.

Coming off a loss, those concerns aren’t as prominent, but that doesn’t make the opponent or environment any easier.

“We go to Vanderbilt and a place where they’re 12-1, beaten Tennessee, then they beat Kentucky. Tennessee was 6, Kentucky was 9,” Bruce Pearl told reporters Monday. “We’ve won seven out of eight to Vanderbilt, and prior to that, we lost 13 in a row. So, Vanderbilt has been a tough place for us to play historically.”

Vanderbilt’s lone home loss this season came early in conference play to Mississippi State, but the Commodores are a tough out regardless of venue.

They played Florida close in Gainesville and held the Gators to 10 offensive rebounds, almost five below their season average. They’re a scrappy, physical team that faces an Auburn group dealing with its fair share of bumps and bruises.

Neither of Vanderbilt’s rebounding numbers jump out on paper, but the scrappiness is shown in other defensive metrics. The Commodores rank 15th in the country in steal percentage (13.5%), according to KenPom, and rarely turn the ball over on offense.

It makes for an offense that doesn’t typically shoot well for 3-point range, but is efficient in how it protects the ball and converts from inside the arc. That creates a test for Auburn after Pearl brought the team’s defensive effort into question after losing to Florida, specifically when asked about defensing Walter Clayton Jr.

Still having the taste of the Florida loss in its mouth should help prevent what long felt like a letdown spot when the Tigers were set to travel to Nashville in between two of their biggest games of the season.

Pearl said after Auburn’s 98-70 win over Oklahoma that if the team doesn’t get better, “we’re going to get beat.”

That wake-up call seemed to happen on Saturday, with Auburn not only getting beat, but trailing by as many as 21 points in the second half.

Now, with a pivotal final stretch of the season ahead, Tuesday night’s game at the always unpredictable Memorial Gymnasium is the first chance to show the progress Pearl believes his team needs to make.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m