Charles Barkley took a joke and ran with it. So far, perhaps, that he may have added a game to Auburn basketball’s nonconference schedule next season.
During 4-seed Alabama’s first-round NCAA Tournament matchup with 13-seed Hofstra, the Auburn legend was greeted from a commercial break during TNT’s halftime coverage with a graphic High Point posted to social media, saying it’d secure Barkley an eligibility waiver to play for the Panthers next year.
Eventually, Barkley “guar-an-teed” his alma mater would face High Point during its 2026-27 campaign.
“The coach and his enthusiasm, and then the stuff he talked about after the game was, to me, really poignant and important,” Barkley said in reference to the Panthers. “Some of these big schools got to start playing some of these mid-majors. They’ve got to schedule them, because the big schools do not get their schedule held against them.”
Barkley’s comments were in reference to High Point head coach’s Flynn Clayman’s remarks following his 12th-seeded Panthers’ upset of 5-seed Wisconsin on Thursday.
“It looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors during the season, because they said we ain’t played nobody, “Clayman said. “We played somebody now. … Nobody would play us, just like they wouldn’t play Miami (Ohio). But they’ve got to play us in this tournament.”
Barkley’s promise continued explicitly, saying, “I’m telling you, right now: Auburn’s going to play High Point next year. … I’m going to call Steve(n) Pearl and AD (John) Cohen. We’re playing High Point next year. … I’m speaking for Auburn.”
As for where? Barkley explained that heading into the next commercial break.
“A neutral site,” he said. “We could play a neutral-site somewhere right in between. They can come to Auburn. We’ve got plenty of hotels.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter. To support Adam’s work, please subscribe to the Montgomery Advertiser.
