The No. 20 Auburn Tigers welcome the No. 13 Arkansas Razorbacks to Neville Arena on Saturday and will need little motivation to play well and earn a victory.
Not only will Auburn need to rebound from its poor showing in the 76-64 loss to Georgia on Wednesday, but will look to get revenge on Arkansas after the Razorbacks took down the then-No. 1 Tigers in Fayetteville last season.
After forcing overtime, Arkansas took advantage of Auburn’s fouls by scoring 11 of its’ 14 points in the period to win, 80-76. Sure, the loss stings the current players on the roster, but for two Tigers who hail from the Natural State, it hits home a little harder.
Senior [autotag]Allen Flanigan[/autotag] (Little Rock) and junior [autotag]Chris Moore[/autotag] (West Memphis) spoke with the media ahead of Saturday’s key SEC game, where they shared their personal thoughts towards the Razorbacks.
Moore shared his experience in choosing Auburn over the home-state Razorbacks as a member of the 2020 recruiting cycle and says that he would enjoy nothing more than taking down Arkansas on Saturday.
“For me, it’s also personal,” Moore said Friday. “The day I committed to Auburn the fan base went crazy on me for not going. They said I was disloyal to the state so you know just beating them for the first time in, like, three years would be amazing. It would definitely make my New Year’s.”
From a recruiting standpoint, Flanigan shared a different experience.
“For me it is personal, just being from Little Rock and them offering another kid over me so I never got the offer from my home state, even though I was the No. 1 player in the state and stuff,” Flanigan said.
Sure, both Arkansas natives want to win Saturday’s game for unique reasons, but how are they preparing? Moore says that its’ all about perspective.
“We put in countless hours in the gym, shooting shots and everything. Just having the confidence and realizing that we’re that same player shooting in the gym late at night by ourselves when we shoot in the game,” Moore said. “When we get that mindset, I feel like we’ll start making a lot more shots.”
Auburn hosts Arkansas on Saturday at Neville Arena. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. CT, and can be seen live on SEC Network.
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