The Auburn Tigers have gotten off to one of their best starts in program history this season despite a loaded travel schedule featuring nine games across four states, including a trip over the Pacific Ocean, in just over a month.
While the travel schedule didn’t seem to affect the Tigers during their run to a Maui Invitational or their most recent victory over Richmond, the assumed “wear and tear” of multiple high-leverage contests in a short amount of time is hard to ignore. Senior guard Miles Kelly spoke about those presumed tired legs after Auburn’s blowout victory over Richmond on Sunday.
When asked about having a week to prepare for the next opponent, BIG 10 surprise contender Ohio State, Kelly seemed thankful for the break while emphasizing the importance of using the extra time off to prepare. “We’ve played a lot of games over these past couple of days (weeks). I mean, as [Bruce Pearl] just said in the locker room, ‘we have to get back to work.’”
Auburn’s best three-point scorer further elaborated, “We are going to ramp it up with the training and get our bodies right, so we can be fresh for Ohio State.” That ramp up will be important, not only to prepare for the 6-3 Buckeyes, but for No. 7 ranked Purdue Boilermakers, who the Tigers will face on December 21, as well.
With the week-long hiatus this week and a nine-day layoff in between Purdue and the final game non-conference game of 2024 against Monmouth, Kelly and the Tigers seemingly have placed a major importance on gearing up their bodies for what is shaping up to be an absolute three-month long gauntlet in conference play.
If Auburn can finish non-conference play on a high note, the Tigers could very well enter the SEC stretch of the season ranked as the No. 1 or No. 2 ranked team in the nation. For now, Kelly and his teammates will be focused on gearing up for the prolonged home stretch of the campaign.
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