On the radio following Auburn’s loss to Tennessee, head coach Bruce Pearl said recovering from Wednesday’s 92-84 loss to Tennessee would be the hardest Auburn has had this season.

Why? Because Pearl said Auburn went to Knoxville in hopes to continue chasing an SEC title. With the loss, Auburn falls to 21-7 overall and 10-5 in the SEC. It puts Auburn two games back of the SEC lead with three games to play.

It’s a question quite simple and an answer quite complicated: Does Auburn have a shot to win the SEC still? Yes. But it will need a lot of help.

Auburn always felt like it had a shot to win the SEC because it had the easiest three-game stretch to close the season of any of the league’s contenders. Auburn faces Mississippi State at home Saturday, goes to Missouri on Tuesday and closes the season at home against Georgia on March 9.

Auburn will be expected to win all three of those games. To have any shot to win the SEC, it has to. Simple as that. Slip up anywhere and be officially eliminated from the SEC title.

Going 3-0 will likely ensure Auburn gets a top-four seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament, meaning it will have a double-bye.

But win all three of those games and Auburn will still need help to win the league title.

Currently, Tennessee and Alabama are tied atop the SEC with 12-3 league records. Those two sides will play each other Saturday in Tuscaloosa, guaranteeing one team will enter the final week of the season one game better than the rest of the league.

Auburn needs each of those teams to lose at least two more times.

Tennessee’s schedule to close the year is brutal. After Alabama, it will play South Carolina on the road — a team that beat Tennessee in Knoxville this season — and host Kentucky to close to the year.

After facing Tennessee, Alabama will go on the road to face Florida, a squad playing its best basketball late in the season in an arena where Auburn lost earlier this season. Florida pushed Alabama to overtime in Tuscaloosa eight days ago.

There’s still South Carolina ahead of Auburn in the standings too, with an 11-4 league record. South Carolina still faces Florida and Tennessee at home before going to play Mississippi State on the road.

The Gamecocks will have to lose at least once for Auburn to have a shot, too.

Kentucky remains a long shot like Auburn at this point. Both teams have a 10-5 record. Kentucky closes with home games against Arkansas and Vanderbilt as well as a trip to Tennessee.

For the lighter three-game stretch Auburn has to close the year to truly matter, it had to win at least two of its three games against South Carolina, Kentucky and Tennessee. It only won one. It makes Auburn an unlikely bet to win the SEC at this point, but not quite impossible.

KenPom currently projects Alabama and Tennessee to finish tied atop the SEC with 14-4 records.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]