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Auburn

Steven Pearl after loss to Mississippi State: 'That's the worst loss I've ever been a part of at Auburn'

Danby: Daniel Hager02/19/26DanielHagerOn3

Auburn dropped its fifth consecutive game Wednesday night in Starkville against Mississippi State. The Bulldogs held off the Tigers 91-85 inside The Hump, thanks to a whopping 46 points from star guard Josh Hubbard.

Steven Pearl‘s team, at one point, seemed well on its way to making the NCAA Tournament in his first season in charge. Auburn improved to 14-7 (5-3) thanks to an 88-82 win over Texas on Jan. 28, which marked its fourth in a row. Since then, however, Auburn has dropped five consecutive games to Tennessee, Alabama, No. 19 Vanderbilt, No. 21 Arkansas, and Mississippi State.

Following the loss on Wednesday, Pearl made a bold proclamation. Heading into its game against the Bulldogs, Auburn was projected as a No. 9 seed in On3’s Bracketology.

“That’s the worst loss I’ve ever been a part of at Auburn,” a dejected Pearl said. Mississippi State is ranked No. 94 in the NET Rankings, which hands Auburn its second Q2 loss of the season. The loss makes Saturday’s game against Kentucky extremely important, as its NCAA Tournament hopes could firmly be up in the air with a sixth consecutive loss.

An extremely slow start sunk Auburn in the loss, as it was outscored 35-29 by Josh Hubbard alone in the first half. The Tigers won the second half by 10 points, which resulted in a six-point loss. Auburn forward Keyshawn Hall (29 points) and guard Tahaad Pettiford (21 points) both contributed 20-plus points, but the story of the game was certainly Miss State‘s Hubbard. Hubbard poured in 46 points on 10-16 shooting from three-point range. He now sits at No. 6 on Mississippi State‘s all-time scoring leaders list (1,822 points).

With just five games remaining in Steven Pearl‘s inaugural season at Auburn, the Tigers now sit at 14-12 (5-8) overall. The program has missed the NCAA Tournament just once since 2018. That one instance came in 2021, when Auburn was serving a self-imposed Tournament ban. The Tigers have been present in six of the last seven NCAA Tournaments (all under Steven’s father, Bruce), making a run to the Final Four twice (2018 and 2025).

The 2025-26 season certainly didn’t hold extremely large expectations for Steven Pearl and his team after Bruce retired just before the season tipped off, but completely collapsing down the final stretch and missing the NCAA Tournament would be a very disappointing end to his first season at the helm.