28. That was the number of times in a row where the Auburn men's basketball team took the floor in Neville Arena and walked away with a victory. That number is currently zero.
The Texas A&M Aggies made the trip from College Station, Texas to the Plains with one goal in-mind: End the longest home winning-streak in college basketball. After picking up a 79-63 win in which Auburn did not hold a second half lead, the Aggies got to head back west feeling the satisfaction of representing the "1" in 28-1.
This game brings back a few unpleasant memories for Auburn fans.
March 11, 2022. The Tigers, led by Jabari Smith and Walker Kessler, had just won the SEC Regular Season Championship and were looking to pick up the SEC Tournament Championship as well.
Enter: Buzz Williams and the Texas A&M Aggies.
Auburn was down by 16 points at halftime. Despite outscoring the Aggies by 11 in the second half, the Tigers were unable to regain full control and went one-and-done in Tampa.
The date was March 4th, 2020. The memories of a Final Four run in the previous spring were still fresh on the minds of Tiger fans. Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl was looking forward to navigating his team through the NCAA Tournament once again. The Tigers had one more home test: A Wednesday night matchup with a 14-14 team on senior night. Who was that team? None other than the Texas A&M Aggies.
It was a rainy day. The COVID-19 Pandemic loomed in the shadows, but who was thinking about that? The Auburn Tigers, led by Issac Okoro, were getting ready for senior night. A road contest against the Tennesse Volunteers was scheduled to take place that Saturday. It was clear that Auburn got caught looking ahead and the Tigers paid the price by taking a 78-75 loss on senior night and seeing their 22 home-game winning streak go up in smoke.
"It was devastating," said Jacob Hillman who was a sophomore at Auburn at the time. "The team had never gone undefeated at home since the new arena opened."
There is a specific WWE rivalry that comes to mind when looking back on the recent history between these two basketball programs.
Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins are two of the most popular professional wrestlers of the last 15 years. The two were part of The Shield, who along with Dean Ambrose, wreaked havoc on the WWE for three years. In June of 2015, Rollins shocked the world by delivering a chair shot to Reigns, effectively turning his back on his brothers.
Reigns and Rollins have faced off over 30 times, and Reigns has won 19 of those contests. However, Rollins has never lost to Reigns at a pay per view event.
Since Buzz Williams took the head coaching position at Texas A&M in 2019, Auburn holds a 1-4 record against the Aggies.
Auburn has accomplished a lot during that time, but never can seem to get the best of the Aggies.
Reigns has held the championship since 2019, but will not put it on the line against Rollins because he is unsure about his ability to beat him when it matters the most. Sound familiar?
The two teams face off again on Tuesday, February 7th in College Station. Will Auburn get a rare win over the Aggies? Will Texas A&M best Pearl and the Tigers again? Only time will tell.
