It’s been a rough go for Auburn Tigers head coach Steven Pearl in his first season at the helm, especially here down the stretch during what has been a pretty massive collapse for the team.

Following the team’s seventh defeat in the last eight games, with a potentially tournament extinguishing home defeat to Ole Miss, Pearl apologized to the fans for the second straight loss in a press conference that lasted right around 150 seconds.

“I want to apologize to our fans who have been so phenomenal all year, they deserve better,” Pearl said in what was a very brief opening statement. “We had an opportunity to step on their throats and didn’t…I feel like I sound like a broken record every time you allow teams to make shots early that gives them confidence.”

Pearl interestingly revealed that KeShawn Murphy — who started for most of the season but came off the bench on Saturday and has struggled recently — was 20 minutes late to a film session this week and that was the reason why he did not start.

Auburn now finds itself in a tough spot — the remaining two regular season games against LSU and Alabama are must-wins if they want to make the NCAA Tournament.

Starting Tuesday night, Pearl and the Tigers have no margin for error if they hope to avoid disaster.