Report: Incident between players forces Auburn basketball to return home, land plane

Auburn’s plane had to turn around on its way to Houston after an incident between players “that could have escalated into a fight,” The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman reported. The Tigers were about 45 minutes into the trip before they had to return to Auburn due to “horseplay” that “nearly turned into a Donnybrook.”

The Tigers are expected to take another flight to Houston Friday night for Saturday’s game. According to WBRC-TV’s Jonathan Hardison, Air Traffic Control audio showed a pilot in the airspace saying, “We have a bunch of basketball players fighting,” although Goodman said no punches were thrown. However, there was yelling as players got in each other’s faces. AuburnLive’s Justin Hokanson had more details on the situation, as well.

Auburn is coming off a resounding victory in its first game of the season, cruising past Vermont 94-43 at Neville Arena. Five Tigers reached double figures – led by 21 points from Miles Kelly – as they shot 56.3% as a group, including a 16-for-35 showing from three-point distance. On defense, Auburn held Vermont to just 15-of-58 overall and 5-of-23 from downtown.

Despite the strong showing, Bruce Pearl didn’t want fans to overreact to a 51-point win. He said Auburn simply got hot and played well, and it wasn’t much more than that.

“We’re not celebrating this,” Pearl said. “Don’t read into it too much other than we shot it really well and played pretty hard.”

Despite starting the year against Vermont – which ranks 103rd in the KenPom rankings – Auburn’s schedule won’t get easier. In addition to Houston this weekend, the Tigers will also have to face Duke, Iowa State, Ohio State and Purdue before SEC play begins once the calendar flips to 2025.

Pearl’s scheduling philosophy is simple. The Tigers are now considered a quality victory, which is why he’s willing to play such high-caliber opponents.

“We worked so hard to get our program to a place where those teams are going to want to play us,” Pearl said during Auburn’s football game against Vanderbilt. “Like, they believe an opportunity to play against Auburn is a quality win. That wasn’t the case 10 years ago.

“I know student-athletes come to Auburn because they want to be able to play against the best. It’s a real responsibility to us representing the SEC, to play that schedule and beat some of those teams.”