Auburn basketball Mandatory Credit: Julie Bennett-USA TODAY Sports
2020-21 was not an easy year for Auburn basketball by any stretch. In fact, it may not be a stretch to say that no team from any Power 5 conference had a rougher road from the starting point to the conclusion of the season than the Tigers.
Between the NCAA holding Sharife Cooper back from being eligible to play until the team’s primetime ESPN contest against Alabama at the Auburn Arena (the conspiracy theorist in me has some thoughts), Justin Powell’s scary concussion that sidelined him for the final two months of the SEC schedule, and the team’s ineligibility to even qualify for the postseason at all, and you have the makings of a depressing stretch amid a global pandemic.