Fran Fraschilla praises Bruce Pearl for his response to the Auburn plane accident

Before landing in Houston for a massive non-conference showdown, Auburn had to contend with a minor controversy. Two players, Jahki Howard And Yes'Home Hudsonwere involved in an altercation that resulted in the plane turning around. Neither traveled with the team and will not play against the Cougars.

Before the game, ESPN spoke about the situation as color analyst Fran Fraschilla praised the head coach Bruce Pearl for how he handled it. Fraschilla believes Auburn has a chance to go far in the NCAA Tournament, and these “distractions” can ruin the season pretty quickly.

“This is a Final Four level team,” Fraschilla said. “Coming from early November to early April, you need to eliminate as many distractions as possible. That was a distraction yesterday. Bruce Pearl has taken care of it, both young men are home.

“They could play a key role next season. But he did the right thing…The team comes first and hopefully both young men will learn from this. Kudos to Bruce Pearl for tackling this head-on.”

Howard is a first-year forward who was rated as a four-star recruit and the 70th overall player in the country in the Class of 2024, according to the On3 Industry Rankings. He played 20 minutes without a substitute in Saturday's 94:43 win Vermontscored 7 points and grabbed 4 rebounds.

Hudson transferred to Auburn this offseason after spending last year there SMU. He played 15 minutes and had 2 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in Auburn's opener against Vermont.

On3's Justin Hokanson has more details on the fight here.

Building a tougher non-conference schedule was a big goal for Pearl this year and the mission was accomplished by getting someone like Houston. Now they've lost a few people coming into the game. Neither is considered a large part of the rotation, but depth is important this time of year.

Auburn hopes the distraction isn't too big and can pull out a win on Saturday night.

On3's Matt Connolly contributed to this report