Auburn's win showed why Cooper Flagg, Alabama and everyone else in CBB should fear Tigers

We all knew Auburn was good before they played on Saturday. Nine straight wins, undefeated in SEC play, 5-1 against AP Top 25 teams, first in a bunch of advanced polls and metrics. That's a heck of a resume, especially for the middle of January.

On Tuesday, the Tigers showed the country they can also win without Johni Broome, the potential National Player of the Year — who is out with an ankle injury — by beating a good Mississippi State team 88-66 in Auburn.

The Tigers 70-68 win at Georgia on Saturday showed us something else, though; that Bruce Pearl's team is not only fine without Johni Broome, they might still be good enough to win the conference without their best player. That's frightening for everyone in — and out — of the SEC.

Freshman Tahaad Pettiford scored a career-high 24 points and made 5 3-pointers on Saturday, picking up the scoring slack in Broome's absence. On Tuesday, it was Chad Baker-Mazara and Chaney Johnson getting the buckets. These aren't buckets because someone has to score, either. Auburn won both of these games against two legit SEC opponents so the slack picked up by all of these guys wasn't in vain.

Auburn is a machine hellbent on destruction

Duke's win against these guys looks more impressive every time the Tigers churn to another victory. Are Cooper Flagg and the Blue Devils the only team with a real chance at stopping Auburn? Iowa State and Alabama would have some words, as well.

But how many teams in the country — including those three — could lose their best player and not miss a single step? Could Duke survive without Cooper Flagg? Could Iowa State get the job done without Keshon Gilbert? Would Alabama be a unit without Mark Sears?

I hope we don't have to find out, obviously. My point, though, is that so many things have to go wrong for Auburn to even be close to losing a game; that bodes well in March. And playing without Broome, while obviously not ideal, might just make this team even more well-adjusted to the rare night when Broome doesn't look like the POY. If that happens down the stretch, this team is learning to win without its star.