The Vanderbilt Commodores (12-8, 1-5 Southeastern Conference) take to the road again Saturday in hopes of snapping their four-game losing streak, facing the Auburn Tigers (13-7, 2-3) in a match up of middle of the road SEC teams. Vanderbilt is looking to rebound from its skid and took some positives away from its most recent game, an 86-76 loss at South Carolina on Wednesday. Coach Kevin Stallings believes that despite the losses, this growing team showed something special in Columbia.

"I thought (Wednesday) we showed a much greater degree of togetherness. Guys playing for each other and covering for each other, which I think has to be a necessary part of the growth process for this team," Stallings said. "We had asked them for that, and they gave it to us."

Mired in a losing streak, the Commodores are at a crossroads. Teams with a similar, youthful nature tend to fold when the losses begin to pile up. This Vanderbilt team must break that trend if they hope to see the postseason and end with a respectable final record.

"We've got to stick together when we face adversity," said freshman forward Jeff Taylor, who led Vanderbilt Wednesday with 23 points. "We just have to come together and play as a team and take care of the ball."

The Commodores face an Auburn team that has won three of its last four games. The Tigers took the same Florida team that embarrassed Vanderbilt down to the wire down at Auburn and have had impressive performances against Kentucky and Xavier. Auburn is led by guard DeWayne Reed, who is averaging 14 points a game, forward Korvotney Barber, who is almost averaging a double-double at 12.4 points and 9.1 rebounds a game, and guard Tay Waller, who is averaging 12.1 points a game.

Stallings was quick to praise the Auburn club the Commodores are about to face.

"They're fast and quick and got all of their available pieces and (Korvotney) Barber's made a nice difference for them inside with his being healthy. They've added another shooter," he said. "They're probably as fast as any team in the league. They're 'fast' fast."

So how does Vanderbilt find the strength to pick themselves up again? Stallings agreed that there might be a "freshman wall" but that his young guys cannot hit that wall and must find a way around it. Junior George Drake, a veteran leader on the team, understands what it was like to be a younger player and tries to set an example going forward for this team.

"I just tell the younger guys after losses like this that you have to come back, just stay focused and come out there and get back ... you can't dwell on the losses or anything. Coach says the thing for our team is to be a resilient team," Drake said. "It's important that we are resilient and we come back and just keep striving to get better every day in practice."

Getting better as a team is the main goal, but if the Commodores are going to re-route themselves this season - and give themselves a chance at the postseason - a win on Saturday is a necessity.