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September 8, 2000
AUBURN- The Auburn Tigers, fresh off back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, have the possibility of playing 14 games against postseason teams from a year ago on its 2000-01 basketball schedule, head coach Cliff Ellis announced Friday.
Eleven of the 14 games are against 2000 NCAA Tournament teams, including Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, LSU (twice), Arkansas (twice), Oregon, Creighton, Louisiana-Lafayette and Southeast Missouri State. The Tigers will play three games against 2000 NIT teams, Ole Miss (twice) and Vanderbilt.
The Tigers face Oregon in the Las Vegas Shootout, a doubleheader with Cincinnati and UNLV on ESPN Dec. 16. The Mountain Energy Thanksgiving Tournament in Kansas City features three 2000 NCAA Tournament teams in Creighton and Southeast Missouri State along with Auburn as well as Providence of the Big East, UMKC, Cleveland State, Toledo and Robert Morris, the Tigers's first round opponent Nov. 24.
"I am really looking forward to the upcoming season with this competitive schedule," said Ellis of the Tigers, who are in the top 25 in several preseason rankings. "The SEC is going to be the best it has ever been, and we have four non-conference teams that went to last year's NCAA Tournament. Creighton gave us all we could handle in last year's NCAA Tournament while Louisiana-Lafayette played Tennessee to a nail-biter in the NCAA Tournament. Oregon and Southeast Missouri State were both 20-game-winners."
Other non-conference home games include Southern Miss and South Alabama as well as Jacksonville State, who is coached by former Auburn assistant Mike LaPlante. The Tigers begin the season with a pair of exhibition games Nov. 1 and Nov. 10 and open the regular season Nov. 17 against Florida A&M.
SEC action gets underway against defending SEC co-Champion Tennessee Jan. 6 at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum followed by a road game at Georgia Jan. 10 and a home game vs. defending SEC co-Champ LSU Jan. 13. Three of the next four league games are at Arkansas, at South Carolina and at Alabama and are sandwiched between a home game against defending National runner-up Florida Jan. 24.
The Tigers will play at Kentucky for the Wildcats's Senior Night Feb. 28 before Auburn's Senior Day against Vanderbilt Mar. 3. The SEC Tournament will be played at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville Mar. 8-11.
Auburn went 24-10 last year and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
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