After Auburn basketball’s loss to Florida in February, the Tigers won its next six games before dropping its final two of the regular season.

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl revisited that defeat and knew entering that game how legit Florida was as a contender in the SEC.

“I think when you go through the grind of the SEC, that it’s really hard to have it every night. I think Florida had it that night. I do. Played great,” Pearl said. “Now, look, we maybe didn’t. I’ve been saying since prior to the Florida game, I think Florida’s playing the best basketball of anybody in the country.”

“I felt that way going into the game. And then in the game they showed us that. I don’t know that we’ve improved that much. Maybe we know a little bit more of who we are and what we have to do in order to win that game, the things we didn’t do the first time.”

Johni Broome finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds in that contest. However, it was not as clean of a performance as he would have liked.

Broome shot 8-of-19 from the floor as Florida played both Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh on him in that first game at Auburn.

“They are a good frontcourt,” Broome said to the media Thursday. “They play physical and hard every single play.”

Steven Pearl did not hold back saying that Florida punked the Tigers in that first matchup and elaborated how it was eye opening for the entire team.

“They wanted it more than we did. We were a little too comfortable because we have not loss in a while and were the No. 1 team in the country,” Steven Pearl said to Al.com.

“Our guys understand and respects the level of basketball they play over there now. So, for us to win on Saturday we are going to have to give our best effort, and our defense is going to have to be elite.”

Miles Kelly had the hot hand for the Tigers with 22 points against Florida back in February. His approach will be the same going into Saturday’s game for a chance to compete in Monday’s national title game.

“Just staying aggressive is going to be the main thing for us,” Kelly said. “I want to make my presence felt and make their guards uncomfortable on defense.”

Auburn’s Final Four game against Florida will tipoff at 5:09 Saturday and will be televised on CBS.

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3 or email him at [email protected].