Auburn vs Texas A&M: 2022 SEC Tournament game preview, TV schedule

2022 SEC Tournament Game Preview: Auburn vs Texas A&M

When: Friday, March 11 at 12:00 pm ET on ESPN

Location: Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL

The 2021-22 SEC regular season champions, Auburn begins their push to an SEC Tournament title on Friday afternoon, starting with the Texas A&M Aggies.

After a 10-0 start to SEC play, Auburn comes to Tampa with a 5-3 record across their last eight games, as well as having won their last two games. Included in their most-recent contest that clinched the outright regular season title with an 82-71 win over South Carolina, the Tigers shot an impressive 43.5% from three-point range, as well as never trailing against the Gamecocks.

As mentioned previously, the Tigers enter the 2022 SEC Tournament as the conference’s regular season champions, and because of that are the No. 1 overall seed this week. Finishing the regular season with a 15-3 record in SEC play, as well as 27-4 overall, Auburn are squarely cemented in the conversation for a one-seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament, and will likely receive one of the four with a run this week in Tampa.

Averaging 79.3 PPG while allowing 67 PPG, the Tigers are led by the SEC Freshman of the Year Jabari Smith and SEC Defensive Player of the Year Walker Kessler, as well as a deep backcourt that features Wendell Green Jr, KD Johnson, Allen Flanigan, and Zep Jasper. Devan Cambridge, Jaylin Williams, and Dylan Cardwell are Auburn’s primary depth options, each of which play key roles off the Tigers bench.

Texas A&M on the other hand was arguably the biggest winner from the second round of the 2022 SEC Tournament, with the Aggies defeating Florida in a must-win game 83-80. Despite the Aggies surrendering a double-digit lead late in the second half, Texas A&M was able to win the game in overtime due to a massive three-pointer from guard Hassan Diarra, helping keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

Still likely sitting on the outside looking in of the NCAA Tournament picture, a win over Auburn here would likely put the Aggies into the Big Dance, with a loss likely meaning that Texas A&M will not go dancing. Picking up this win will not be easy however, with the Aggies having lost the lone meeting between the two in mid-February 75-58 in Auburn.

Having won five consecutive games, Texas A&M are led by a deep backcourt that features Quenton Jackson, Tyrece Radford, Wade Taylor IV, Marcus Williams, Andre Gordon, as well as the previously mentioned Diarra. Emanuel Miller is the Aggies primary option inside, and is coming off an impressive game against Florida in which he had 22 points.

There is no denying how big of a game this is for Texas A&M. This will be an Aggies team playing for their NCAA Tournament lives, and while they are certainly capable of pulling the upset, it’s hard not to pick against the regular season champs.

Prediction: Auburn 75, Texas A&M 67