Auburn (17-8, 7-5 SEC) head coach Bruce Pearl started his Monday press conference to preview Tuesday’s game against Missouri (19-6, 7-5 SEC) at Neville Arena with a statement about the importance of the game.

“This is a must-win for us,” Pearl told reporters. “Win this game; we can go to the tournament. Don’t win this game, we’re in sixth place, seventh place, and we have an uphill battle. That’s just where we are. We worked so hard to put ourselves in a great position. We’re still in a great position, and we’ve earned the position we’re in by virtue of our record and the quality of some of our wins. But the NCAA Tournament will not be available to us if we don’t start winning.”

Pearl’s squad is in a three-way tie for fourth place in the SEC with Missouri and Kentucky heading into Tuesday’s 6:00 pm tip on ESPN2. Auburn enters the game on a three-game losing skid and is 1-4 since the Jan 21st victory against South Carolina.

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Missouri downed Tennessee on Saturday and enters the game against Auburn, winning five of their last six games in league play. Auburn is 35th in Monday’s NET rankings, and Missouri is at No. 45. A win for Auburn would be a QUAD 2 victory and a Quad 1 for Missouri.

“They know exactly where we are and who’s who and what’s at stake. Honesty is the best policy. We communicate, and they understand everything about the position we’re in and what we’ve done.” Pearl said. “Yesterday, Northwestern beating Purdue was a good thing. I told our guys that it was gonna be a great win. I didn’t know it was gonna be as good of a win as it is.”

Auburn has six games left in the season. Pearl’s squad is favored against Missouri and will be against Vandy and Ole Miss. They’ll be underdogs against Kentucky, Alabama, and Tennessee. Auburn played in close games against Alabama at Neville Arena and Tennessee in Knoxville.

Sweeping the next three games and stealing one or two against either Alabama, Kentucky, or Tennessee would go a long way toward Auburn getting into the NCAA Tourney.

It most definitely helps us because we have to always know what the goal is — what the end goal is — and that’s to make it to the tournament, Auburn forward Chris Moore said. “So with him telling us where our seeding would be after certain results of games really helps us and really shows us the picture that we’ve got to paint.

Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group