BOONE, N.C. — After a two-win week to open the 2026-27 season, App State Men's Basketball follows a neutral site victory and lopsided home opener with a Monday night game at SEC stalwart Auburn.
The Mountaineers (2-0) and Tigers (1-0) square off on the SEC Network at 9 p.m. ET (or 8 p.m. CT). There have been 86 straight sellouts at the 9,121-seat Neville Arena entering Monday night, and Auburn currently boasts the nation's longest active nonconference home winning streak of 68 straight.
App State meets Auburn for the fourth time overall and the third time since
Dustin Kerns became the Mountaineers' head coach.
The recent three-game series began during the 2020-21 season, when Auburn posted a 67-53 home win against an App State team that later made the NCAA Tournament.
App State then hosted Auburn early in the 2023-24 season, winning 69-64 as part of a 27-7 season in which the Mountaineers finished with a 16-2 league record to earn the program's first outright conference title since 1979. That Auburn team reached No. 7 in the national rankings, won the SEC Tournament title and finished the season with 27 victories.
Bruce Pearl was Auburn's head coach for the Boone visit that drew a sellout crowd of 7,037 to the Holmes Convocation Center, and he retired following the 2024-25 season. His son, Steven, went 22-16 last year in his first season as the Tigers' head coach, and they opened this season with a 92-59 home victory against Southeast Louisiana.
Auburn is led by an experienced backcourt that includes 6-foot-1 Tahaad Pettiford (named to the SEC's preseason third team after averaging 15.4 points for the Tigers last year) and 6-5 Kevin Overton (averaged 14.1 points for Auburn during a 2025-26 season that ended with him being named the Most Outstanding Player of the NIT). Thomas Dowd, a 6-8 forward, is an Auburn newcomer after spending the previous three seasons in the Sun Belt and scoring more than 1,000 points for Troy.
Through just two games, App State ranks third nationally by allowing 46.0 points per game thanks to a 63-49 victory against Merrimack and a 108-43 home win against a non-NCAA opponent. Two of the Mountaineers' early season starters, guard
Jaylen Colon (team-leading 11.5 points per game) and forward
Chad Moodie, started their collegiate careers in Alabama as teammates at Alabama A&M during the 2024-25 season.
When App State defeated Auburn in 2023, it gave Kerns his second career win over a Power Conference opponent. The Mountaineers' 3-32 record against teams currently in the SEC includes an 87-79 overtime win against Vanderbilt in the San Juan Shootout championship game from the 2006-07 team that went 25-8 and a 74-67 win at Arkansas from the 2007-08 team that went 18-13.
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