No. 7-seeded Auburn (20-11, 10-8 Southeastern Conference) is in Nashville to play No. 10-seeded Arkansas (19-12, 8-11 SEC) in the second round of the 2023 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament. The game is on Thursday (6 p.m. CT SEC Network) at Bridgestone Arena.

Bruce Pearl’s squad ended the season with a 4-8 record in the final 12 games. The Tigers were 16-3 with a 6-1 mark in SEC play after an 81-66 win on Jan 21st at South Carolina. Auburn led the majority of the time in both losses against Alabama. Pearl’s team lost close games against Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

Losing both games against Texas A&M also put a damper on the season. However, beating No. 12 Tennessee in a rematch at Neville Arena in the season finale has the Tigers believing they’re more like the team that won 16 of its first 19 games rather than a unit that lost eight of its last 12 contests.

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“It kind of just tells us that we can do it, but we knew that going into it,” Green told reporters. “We can beat these teams; we’re just losing close games. And then to finally do it, it shows us, as a team, finally — we could do it. We proved it to ourselves, so now going into any game, we’ve got confidence against anybody.”

Arkansas is the lower seed; however, the Razorbacks are favored to win by several sportsbooks.

“And now the reward for such a job well done is we get to play the 18th-best team in the country, according to the NET,” Pearl said. “Arkansas is seeded 10th in the SEC tournament, but based on the NET, they’re the 18th seed in the NCAA tournament. You go figure that one. What a great reward.”

Auburn defeated the Razorbacks 72-59 after a disheartening road loss at Georgia in January as conference play started to heat up. It’s imperative to remember that Arkansas didn’t have Nick Smith, who averages nearly 14 points and two assists per game.

Smith on the court eliminates Auburn’s ability to go a zone defense because of his shooting skills. Several months ago, the zone was an essential element in the Tigers’ wire-to-wire victory.

“They weren’t at full strength because they didn’t have Nick Smith,” They were at a time in their season when they weren’t shooting the ball well. And we took full advantage of it by playing 40 possessions of the zone. We probably have played 80 possessions of the zone on the season, 40 of them in that game. But that was just because Arkansas was struggling so much from three.”

Smith is averaging nearly 20 points a game in his last five since returning to the starting lineup. Senior guard Zep Jasper is one of the best defensive players in the conference. He doesn’t shoot the ball often and scores 3.0 points a game on three shot attempts a game. His value is in his defense, and he’ll get a test with Smith.

“I’m ready,” Jasper told reporters in Nashville. “Smith is a handful. It’s nothing I can’t handle. I’m looking forward to a great game. I’m going to do my best to stop him.”