Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl maintains speaking the truth and being open and honest with his team.

That said, when the Tigers couldn’t pull off the upset against the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville on Feb. 28, Pearl didn’t mince words.

“We knew (Feb. 28) that we were playing for an SEC championship. We’ve been playing for an SEC championship all season,” Pearl said on March 1. “But we also knew that if we couldn’t upset Tennessee at Tennessee, we would be two games behind them with three to go.”

However, while the SEC regular season title might be out of reach for Auburn, Pearl says he and the Tigers understand that there’s still plenty to play for as they approach their last pair of regular season games — first at Missouri on Tuesday and then against Georgia back in Neville Arena on Saturday.

In terms of the SEC tournament, which is set to get underway from Nashville on March 17, Auburn is still in the hunt for a top-6 seed as the Tigers make up one of the teams in the league’s tight, tight race near the top.

As of Tuesday, Tennessee sits atop the conference with a 13-3 league record. Behind the Vols are South Carolina and Alabama, which each hold 12-4 SEC records. And then there’s Auburn and Kentucky, which each have 11-5 SEC records.

Depending on the how this week shakes out, there could be plenty of shuffling around near the top before it’s all said and done.

“It’s the last week of the regular season and mathematically speaking, I think finishing anywhere between the 1 and 6, I think still, right? We’ve been saying that for a while now,” Pearl said Monday. “We’re still there. Obviously we have to continue to win.”

In Tuesday’s game against Missouri, Auburn will have an opportunity to log 12 SEC wins and a winning conference record when playing on the road — something that’s proven difficult for just about every team in the league this season.

“That obviously matters,” Pearl said. “And it would be the third time in the last seven years that we have a winning record on the road.”

In the case of Tuesday night’s game against Missouri, while Auburn will be visiting a team still looking for its first SEC win of the season, Mizzou Arena isn’t a place that’s been kind to Auburn historically.

Heading into Tuesday’s matchup, Auburn is 3-4 when visiting Missouri in Columbia.

The last time Auburn traveled to Missouri, it was ranked as the No. 1 team in the country for the first time in program history and had to squeak out a 55-54 win.

“It’s senior night at Missouri. I can’t imagine the intensity and passion those guys are going to play with to get the victory,” Pearl said. “But it means a lot to us too.”

Of Missouri’s 16 SEC losses, 10 have been by a margin of 10 points or less, which points to Missouri playing “as hard as anyone in the league.”

And while Missouri has proved to be a gritty team, Pearl recognize the optics of a loss would be far from favorable.

“A loss to a team whose math is so compromised would set us back,” Pearl said. “There’s a lot of reasons why we’d like to play well, and again, we’re playing our best basketball coming down the stretch. These games obviously matter.”

Auburn, which came in ranked as No. 13 in the country this week, will take on Missouri Tuesday night at 8 from Mizzou Arena in a game that’s set to be televised by the SEC Network.