Auburn men’s basketball has had a number of big wins and memorable moments in the 2024-2025 season.

The Tigers are currently 27-4, Southeastern Conference regular season champions and have won 16 Quad I games. They’ve played the second-toughest schedule in college basketball, per KenPom, and have plenty of wins to back up their projection as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

However, when speaking on TNT’s “The Steam Room” podcast with Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl remembers one of those wins as an early turning point for the team.

“It was at Houston,” Pearl said when asked about the moment he knew he had a good team. “I was worried, and I still am a little bit worried about our physicality. And yet, we were able to go down to Houston and play a great, great game against them.”

Auburn won that game 74-69, beating then No. 4 and now No. 2 Houston in what was technically neutral site game, but was in the city of Houston.

It also came just one day after an in-flight altercation took place on the Auburn team plane, forcing the flight to be turned around and delaying the team’s arrival in Houston.

Pearl also mentioned Auburn’s run in the Maui Invitational, winning the tournament just under two weeks after the win against Houston.

“That was it. It’s all I need to see, that I knew this team had a chance to be special,” Pearl said. “I knew this team had a chance to be special, that we had seven starters, seven guys that could start out there, with Tahaad Pettiford, Chaney Johnson, coming off the bench, then playing Dylan Cardwell and Johni Broome, two 6-10 guys together…

“The way those guys bonded and played well together has helped us defensively and in this league,” Pearl added. “There are some physical monsters in this league. And as long as the officials let us all play come NCAA Tournament time, I think there’s going to be a boatload of teams from the SEC in the Sweet Sixteen.”

Auburn will start the postseason Friday, facing either Ole Miss, Arkansas or South Carolina in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. The game is set to tip off at noon and will be televised on ESPN.

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