By David Ching, special to AL.com

Call this season's Auburn basketball team "The Drought Busters." Bruce Pearl's team has managed to stop one program losing streak after another since SEC play opened a month ago.

A lengthy drought against Vanderbilt was the latest to end, with the Tigers' 93-81 win on Saturday night snapping a 13-game skid against the Commodores that dated back to 2007.

In doing so, the Tigers (21-2, 9-1 SEC) vaulted to No. 8 in this week's Associated Press Top 25, the program's highest ranking since 2000.

"Historically so many other programs at Auburn have been in the top 10," Pearl told reporters Monday. "Men's basketball hasn't since 2000 or whatever it is, so the fact that we at least find ourselves in this position means we're holding up our end."

The Vandy win continued a trend that started with Auburn's very first game in SEC play. When the Tigers won 94-84 at then-No. 23 Tennessee on Jan. 2 that marked the first time Auburn had beaten a ranked opponent on the road since 2007, ending a 15-game winless run. It also ended a 10-game losing streak at Tennessee that dated back to 1998.

The next game marked the first win over Arkansas at Auburn Arena in six tries.

The game after that was Auburn's first win at Mississippi State since 2009, ending a six-game slide.

Then last week, Auburn ended a 10-year drought at Ole Miss, snapping an eight-game losing streak in Oxford by beating the Rebels 79-70.

The Tigers will have an opportunity to halt some more negative trends as the season progresses, starting Wednesday night against Texas A&M (8 p.m., ESPN2). Auburn is 0-3 against the Aggies since Auburn Arena opened and 1-4 overall at home against the Aggies.

And while Auburn beat Kentucky the last time the Wildcats visited Auburn in 2016, history will decidedly favor Kentucky when it comes to town on Valentine's Day. Kentucky has won 19 of its last 20 games against Auburn and is 33-2 against the Tigers dating back to 1990.

The biggest remaining series skid that is still ahead, though, is Auburn's 0-11 drought at Florida. When the Tigers visit Gainesville on Feb. 24, they will have failed to win there since 1996.

Then there is the matter of the most important droughts that the Tigers still might end - the biggest being the 19 years since Auburn last won the SEC title. And even if they fall short of that achievement, they are close to ensuring that yet another negative streak will end. It would take a monumental collapse at this point for the Tigers to not reach the NCAA tournament - where Auburn last played in 2003.

Bad away from Bartow

UAB has generally been outstanding at home this season, winning 11 of its 13 games thus far in Birmingham.

If the Blazers (15-9, 6-5 Conference USA) fail to make a postseason tournament, it will be their subpar play away from home that will cost them. UAB is 4-7 in such games: 4-4 in true road games and 0-3 on neutral courts.

The Blazers seemed at one point to have bounced back from a disastrous Thanksgiving trip to the Caribbean, where they went 0-3 at the Cayman Islands Classic. They played Auburn tough on the road and notched back-to-back road wins at Florida Atlantic and Florida International.

But since, they have played three tough teams on the road and lost all three games: at Western Kentucky, at Marshall and most recently, a 65-60 defeat Saturday at Old Dominion where the Blazers lost a season-high 18 turnovers. Their only win in the 1-3 road stretch they're currently on is a 76-64 win last week at Charlotte, the worst team in the conference.

The short-term good news is that the Blazers' next two games - against North Texas and Rice - come at Bartow, but then they play consecutive road games at Louisiana Tech, Southern Miss and Middle Tennessee. With a margin for error that is essentially nonexistent at this point, UAB can't afford to keep turning in poor road performances in those games.