Why is Auburn struggling to shoot from deep at home?
The Tigers have one of the nation's best 3-point offenses away from Neville Arena. How come that's not translating in front of The Jungle?
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — On Saturday, Auburn only hit six of its 22 3-point attempts in its 12-point win over Georgia, which comes out to a rough percentage of 27.3%.
A few days earlier, Auburn went an even-more-brutal 4-24 from beyond the arc in its late escape against Arkansas, which comes out to 16.7%.
While the Tigers’ struggles from downtown might have felt new, given they had just gone 12-30 (40%) on triples in their No. 1 versus No. 2 rivalry win over Alabama, they actually were a continuation of a month-long trend.
Over its last five home games, Auburn has not shot better than 31.8% on 3-pointers in a single matchup. That percentage came in the Tigers’ lone SEC loss to Florida. In wins over Tennessee and Oklahoma, Auburn shot 15% and 30.8%, respectively.
With seven games played on the road and seven games played at home in conference action, Auburn is now shooting 30.2% from deep inside Neville Arena. That ranks 11th in the SEC. For the season, Auburn is at 33.9% on 3-pointers in home games, which ranks 202nd among Division I teams.
But this is still the best 3-point shooting team Auburn has had since its magical run to the Final Four in 2019. The Tigers are just outside the top 50 nationally in 3-point field goal percentage, and they’re inside the top half of the SEC — even with the home-game blues.
That’s because Auburn is shooting a sizzling 40.1% from 3-point range in true road games this season. That’s both overall and in SEC games, ranking ninth nationally and second in the conference.
In neutral-site games, Auburn shot 36.3% from deep, and it’s 15th in the country in 3-point shooting in all games played away from home at 38.4%.
Remember the Nike ball trope from previous seasons? Auburn is actually shooting better with those than it is at home.
During its conference-best 13-1 start, Auburn’s 3-point shooting is almost 10 full percentage points better on the road than it is at home. That’s the difference between one of the best shooting squads in the entire country and a bottom-third operation.
Why is that?
“That's a great question,” Pearl said Saturday, when asked about the severe difference in splits by friend of the newsletter Henry Patton. “I felt that way myself, but I didn't have the exact analytics on it. But I did feel that way. We shot it so well on the road.
“I'm not really sure why that's the case, but I'm gonna look at it.”
While Pearl and his staff look at the numbers this week, before Auburn hosts Ole Miss in a rematch Wednesday night, let’s try to figure it out for ourselves right here.