Bruce Pearl talks bye week, Jaylin Williams' status, 'focused' team and more ahead of Georgia trip

AUBURN -- Following a week off, No. 14 Auburn basketball will get back to action at Georgia on Saturday. It was a much-needed bye week following Jaylin Williams' injury, both for regrouping purposes and rest purposes, as the Tigers were the last SEC to experience a bye this season. "It was great. We needed it with Jaylin’s injury. It helped us get organized," Bruce Pearl said on Thursday. "More than anything, since the beginning of the year, it’s been two games per week, it’s been that grind. Tuesday I went out and recruited the state tournament and it was good to be away a little bit. I thought the guys were glad to see me, missed me a little bit. I was glad to see them, but if we had come back Monday and had a game Wednesday, I don’t know if they would have felt the same way." With five regular season games left, Auburn is still within reach of the SEC regular season crown. It's an uphill climb sitting two games back of Alabama and one game back of Tennessee. The Tigers are still holding onto their projection, by most analysts, of a No. 4 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, and currently sit as the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament, if the season ended today. The top four seeds in Nashville get a first-round bye. The Tigers (20-5, 9-4) have only lost back-to-back games once this season, at Alabama and at Mississippi State at the end of January. Defeating the Bulldogs (15-11, 5-8) in Athens won't be an easy task. Georgia has a six-point home loss to Tennessee, a nine-point home loss to Alabama (in which they led by double digits) and a six-point home loss to Florida, in addition to beating Arkansas and LSU at home. Much more from Pearl inside...