Auburn basketball bolsters schedule with Big Ten foe at Holiday Hoopsgiving in Atlanta

AUBURN – For the fifth consecutive season, Auburn basketball will participate in Holiday Hoopsgiving.

The Tigers, who beat Indiana in the event last year, will return to State Farm Arena on Dec. 14 to face Ohio State, the program announced Monday. Auburn has played the Buckeyes once before, with the teams meeting in the Sweet 16 of the 1999 NCAA Tournament. Ohio State earned a 72-64 victory on the way to the Final Four.

Ohio State has won 20 or more games in six of the last seven seasons, including 22 wins in 2023-24. Fourteen of those wins last season came with Chris Holtmann, who was fired in February. Assistant coach Jake Diebler led the Buckeyes to an 8-3 record as interim head coach. He was officially named head coach on March 17. Diebler has previous experience as an assistant at Valparaiso and Vanderbilt.

Auburn’s deal with the Buckeyes comes on the heels of the Tigers announcing contracts with Purdue and Houston. Auburn will play the Cougars on Nov. 9 and the Boilermakers on Dec. 21.

Other currently known non-conference games for the Tigers include a matchup at Duke in the ACC/SEC Challenge and three games at The Maui Invitational. Auburn will play three of the other seven teams in attendance. The field, in addition to the Tigers, includes Colorado, Dayton, Iowa State, Memphis, Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn.

The SEC released the locations of conference games for the upcoming season in May. The Tigers will host Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee. His road tests will be at Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.

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2024-25 Auburn basketball schedule: What we know

• November 9: Houston at Toyota Center (neutral)

• November 25: TBD at Jim Maui Invitational

• November 26: TBD at Jim Maui Invitational

• November 27: TBD at Jim Maui Invitational

• December 4: At Duke as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge

• December 14: vs. Ohio State as part of Holiday Hoopsgiving (neutral)

• December 21: vs. Purdue at Legacy Arena (neutral)

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached by email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball schedule: Tigers meet foe for Holiday Hoopsgiving