{"id":1183972,"date":"2026-02-20T11:17:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/?p=1183972"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:17:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:17:34","slug":"steven-pearl-calls-loss-to-mississippi-state-worst-ive-ever-been-a-part-of-at-auburn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/steven-pearl-calls-loss-to-mississippi-state-worst-ive-ever-been-a-part-of-at-auburn\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Pearl Calls Loss to Mississippi State &#8216;Worst I\u2019ve Ever Been a Part of at Auburn&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Auburn Tigers\u00a0dropped the ball on\u00a0another massive opportunity to\u00a0get back on track\u00a0Wednesday night on the road in Starkville, falling 91-85 after a dramatic comeback effort from an 18-point deficit saw them take the lead late.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the Bulldogs were able to fight back and take the game back behind a historic night from their star Josh Hubbard, who is one of the best offensive players in all of college basketball. On Wednesday, Hubbard scored 46 points with nine rebounds and absolutely torched Auburn down the stretch to get the victory.<\/p>\n<p>Going 10 of 16 from the three-point line, Hubbard score more than half of Mississippi State\u2019s points on the evening.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">ALL OF THE SHOTMAKING \ud83e\udd2f<\/p>\n<p>Josh Hubbard scored MORE THAN HALF of Mississippi St.\u2019s points to beat Auburn \ud83d\ude2f<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfaf 46 PTS<br \/>\n\ud83c\udfaf 10-16 3FG <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eo3huoPlZa\">pic.twitter.com\/eo3huoPlZa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/2024339695799296077?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>After the game, Tigers head coach Steven Pearl \u2014 who has now guided the team to their fifth straight defeat and has them on the brink of bubble status for the NCAA Tournament \u2014 called the loss the worst he\u2019s been a part of during his long tenure on The Plains.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Steven Pearl on the mood in the locker room after Auburn&#8217;s 5th straight loss:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not great&#8230; We&#8217;ve got to make a decision on how we&#8217;re going to start games. We can&#8217;t wait until we&#8217;re down 18 to start playing desperate. We&#8217;ve got to play desperate when it&#8217;s 0-0.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/h556wLRBPq\">pic.twitter.com\/h556wLRBPq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NextRoundLive\/status\/2024457132540641782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not great,\u201d Pearl said after the game when asked about the mood in the locker room.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody is obviously disappointed with the result, but if we can draw from those 15 minutes in the second half where we played really well, we can do something with it. If we continue to have slow starts, we\u2019re not gonna win any games. We\u2019ve got to make a decision on how we\u2019re going to start games. We can\u2019t wait until we\u2019re down 18 to start playing desperate. We\u2019ve got to play desperate when it\u2019s 0-0.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moving forward, Auburn has a home game this Saturday night against Kentucky which all of the sudden becomes a complete must-win and perhaps the most important matchup of their season. Aside from a\u00a0trip to Tuscaloosa\u00a0in the final game of the regular season, the Wildcats present the Tigers with one last chance to build a resume before tournament decisions start being made.<\/p>\n<p>Now at 5-8 in conference play and just 14-12 overall, a victory is absolutely critical if Pearl is going to avoid missing the tournament in his first year in the big chair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The Auburn Tigers\u00a0dropped the ball on\u00a0another massive opportunity to\u00a0get back on track\u00a0Wednesday night on the road in Starkville, falling 91-85 after a dramatic comeback effort <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/steven-pearl-calls-loss-to-mississippi-state-worst-ive-ever-been-a-part-of-at-auburn\/\" title=\"Steven Pearl Calls Loss to Mississippi State &#8216;Worst I\u2019ve Ever Been a Part of at Auburn&#8217;\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":4874,"featured_media":1183973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,145,10,147],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1183972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-au-basketball","8":"category-auburn","9":"category-tigers-plains-war-eagle","10":"category-featured-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ccr2601032053_au_v_uga.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4874"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1183972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183974,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183972\/revisions\/1183974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1183973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wnsp.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}