1987–88 Auburn Tigers men's basketball team

1987–88 Auburn Tigers men's basketball
1987–88 Auburn Tigers men's basketball
NCAA tournament, second round
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Record	19–11 (11–7 SEC)
Head coach	Sonny Smith (10th season);
Home arena	Joel H. Eaves Memorial Coliseum
	Seasons ← 1986–87 1988–89 →

1987–88 Southeastern Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 6 Kentucky †	13	–	5	.722	27	–	6	.818
Auburn	11	–	7	.611	19	–	11	.633
Florida	11	–	7	.611	23	–	12	.657
LSU	10	–	8	.556	16	–	14	.533
Vanderbilt	10	–	8	.556	20	–	11	.645
Tennessee	9	–	9	.500	16	–	13	.552
Georgia	8	–	10	.444	20	–	16	.556
Ole Miss	6	–	12	.333	13	–	16	.448
Alabama	6	–	12	.333	14	–	17	.452
Mississippi State	6	–	12	.333	14	–	15	.483

† 1988 SEC tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

The 1987–88 Auburn Tigers men's basketball team represented Auburn University in the 1987–88 college basketball season. The team's head coach was Sonny Smith, who was in his tenth season at Auburn. The team played their home games at Joel H. Eaves Memorial Coliseum in Auburn, Alabama. They finished the season 19–11, 11–7 in SEC play. They lost to Georgia in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament where they defeated Bradley to advance to the Second Round where they lost to Oklahoma.^[1]

The Tigers' most notable freshman signee was 7'0" center Matt Geiger. Geiger was pressed into service early as a starter when senior Jeff Moore went down with an early-season injury.

Junior forward Mike Jones, the Tigers' leading scorer and rebounder, was declared academically ineligible and left the team after seven games. As a result, sophomore John Caylor became a starting forward along with senior Chris Morris. Caylor paid an immediate dividend by hitting a game-winning 3-point shot with 10 seconds left to give the Tigers an early conference road victory over #1-ranked Kentucky.

Guards Gerald White and Frank Ford were lost to graduation, but seniors Terrence Howard and Johnny Lynn, sophomore Derrick Dennison, and juco transfer Keenan Carpenter were able to offset the loss.

Roster

1987–88 Auburn Tigers men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
F	34	Chris Morris	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	—	Sr	Frederick Douglass High School	Atlanta, Georgia
F	13	Mike Jones	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	—	Jr	Columbus, Georgia
C	40	Jeff Moore	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	—	Sr	Midfield High School	Midfield, Alabama
G	10	Terrence Howard	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	—	Sr	Southwest High School	Southwest, AL
F	22	John Caylor	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	—	So	Morristown West High School	Talbott, Tennessee
C	25	Matt Geiger	7 ft 0 in (2.13 m)	—	Fr	Countryside High School	Clearwater, FL
G	30	Keenan Carpenter	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	—	Jr	Rutherfordton, Tennessee
G	24	Derrick Dennison	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	—	So	Douglass High School	Atlanta, Georgia
G	14	Johnny Lynn	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	—	Sr	Beech High School	Hendersonville, Tennessee
G	11	Melvin Haralson	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	—	Jr	Jackson, Mississippi

Head coach

Sonny Smith (Milligan)

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Schedule and Results

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Regular season
Nov 27, 1987*		vs. South Alabama	W 120-67	1-0	Birmingham, AL Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center
Dec 1, 1987*		Virginia Commonwealth	W 93-80	2-0	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Dec 7, 1987*		Tennessee-Martin	W 99-77	3-0	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Dec 11, 1987*		vs. San Jose State Illinois Classic	W 70-65	4-0	Assembly Hall Champaign, IL
Dec 12, 1987*		at Illinois Illini Classic	L 103-107	4-1	Assembly Hall Champaign, IL
Dec 14, 1987*		Grambling State	W 98-59	5-1	Beard-Eaves Memorial Colliseum Auburn, AL
Dec 16, 1987*		Mercer	W 80-48	6-1	Beard-Eaves Memorial Colliseum Auburn, AL
Dec 29, 1987*		vs. Villanova Cotton States Classic	W 65-64	7-1	Alexander Memorial Coliseum Atlanta, GA
Dec 30, 1987*		at Georgia Tech Cotton States Classic	L 72-83	7-2	Alexander Memorial Coliseum Atlanta, GA
Jan 6, 1988 7:00 p.m., JPT		No. 15 Florida	W 72-67	8-2 (1-0)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Jan 9, 1988		at No. 1 Kentucky	W 53-52	9-2 (2-0)	Rupp Arena Lexington, KY
Jan 13, 1988	No. 19	at Georgia	L 68-87	9-3 (2-1)	Stegeman Coliseum Athens, GA
Jan 16, 1988	No. 19	Mississippi State	W 65-57	10-3 (3-1)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Jan 20, 1988		at Tennessee	L 64-75	10-4 (3-2)	Thompson-Boling Arena Knoxville, TN
Jan 23, 1988		Vanderbilt	L 71-75	10-5 (3-3)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Jan 27, 1988		Alabama	W 84-74	11-5 (4-3)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Jan 30, 1988		at Mississippi	L 66-69	11-6 (4-4)	C.M. Tad Smith Coliseum Oxford, MS
Feb 3, 1988		LSU	L 69-78	11-7 (4-5)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Feb 6, 1988		at No. 19 Florida	W 58-57	12-7 (5-5)	Stephen C. O'Connell Center Gainesville, FL
Feb 10, 1988		No. 10 Kentucky	L 62-69	12-8 (5-6)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Feb 13, 1988		Georgia	W 64-57	13-8 (6-6)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Feb 17, 1988		at Mississippi State	W 77-61	14-8 (7-6)	Humphrey Coliseum Starkville, Ms
Feb 20, 1988		Tennessee	W 73-68	15-8 (8-6)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
Feb 24, 1988		at No. 17 Vanderbilt	W 81-68	16-8 (9-6)	Memorial Gymnasium Nashville, TN
Feb 27, 1988		at Alabama	L 77-82	16-9 (9-7)	Coleman Coliseum Tuscaloosa, AL
March 2, 1988		Mississippi	W 92-76	17-9 (10-7)	Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum Auburn, AL
March 5, 1988		at LSU	W 89-80	18-9 (11-7)	Maravich Assembly Center Baton Rouge, LA
SEC Tournament
March 11, 1988 , JPT	(2)	vs. (7) Georgia Second Round	L 60-65	18-10	Maravich Assembly Center Baton Rouge, LA
NCAA Tournament
March 17, 1988*	(8 SE)	vs. (9 SE) No. 11 Bradley First Round	W 90-86	19-10	The Omni Atlanta, GA
March 19, 1988*	(8 SE)	vs. (1 SE) No. 4 Oklahoma Second Round	L 87-107	19-11	The Omni Atlanta, GA
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. SE=Southeast. All times are in Central.

Rankings

References

^ "1987-88 Auburn Tigers Schedule and Results". Retrieved December 9, 2016.

[1] "1987-88 Auburn Tigers Schedule and Results". Retrieved December 9, 2016.

[1]

v t e Auburn Tigers men's basketball
Venues	The Gymnasium (1906–1916) Alumni Gymnasium (1916–1946) Auburn Sports Arena (1946–1969) Beard–Eaves–Memorial Coliseum (1969–2010) Neville Arena (2010–present)
Rivalries	Alabama UAB
Culture & lore	Aubie The Jungle
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA Final Four appearances in italics