The Stretch 4: For Auburn, it's time to get right and get healthy
As Keyshawn Hall recovers from a sprain, the Tigers have one more paycheck game to tighten things up before heading to Vegas.
AUBURN — There might not be a player who personified Auburn’s close loss to Houston better than Elyjah Freeman.
Like many of his fellow Tigers, Sunday in Birmingham was Freeman’s first big game at Auburn. It was a drastic step up in competition level to face the most consistent power in the country, especially for someone who spent last season in Division II.
Freeman had some of the biggest plays of the day for Auburn, from a Dunk of the Year-level poster over Houston’s two best defenders to a pair of forced turnovers that gave the Tigers a shot to win on the final possession of the game.
There were questions if Freeman was ready for that challenge, just like there were questions if Auburn was ready for that challenge. But Steven Pearl expected that performance from Freeman, just like he expected it from his team.
“He has got all the potential in the world to be as good of a basketball player as he wants to be,” Pearl said Tuesday.
Still, Auburn lost to Houston. The Tigers know they made their own errors that helped lead to that loss. Freeman is no exception, even with all the highlights.
“He’s so coachable, so I’m able to speak to this,” Pearl said. “But, like, he’s got to cut down on his mistakes. … I think he’s a really, really good basketball player, so I’m obviously happy that he did some really good things. But I think his ceiling is so much higher than what he’s showing right now.”
For example, Pearl counted seven Houston points on film that were a result of Freeman getting knocked down to the ground, leading to easy transition. Auburn preaches the importance of “playing off of two feet” on offense, establishing a solid enough base that can’t be forced off-balance as easily if you go up off of one foot.
Pearl also noted that Freeman spent a significant stretch of the game playing too tightly to his man off-ball and not assisting in gaps. When he was in the gaps late in the game, Pearl noted, he made critical stops.
“What I love about him is he’s willing to make those changes,” Pearl said. “It’s just a matter of applying those into games. … He’s where I thought he’d be, and the exciting part about him is there’s so much room for him to get better, too.”
Sounds a lot like Auburn as a whole, huh?
Auburn will get one more tune-up at home Wednesday night against Jackson State before a massive stretch of non-conference play. Next week, Auburn will face Oregon and Michigan in Las Vegas before a mystery third team.
Then it’s back to Auburn for the ACC/SEC Challenge against a surging NC State squad. Then it’s three straight Saturdays away from home: at Arizona, against Chattanooga in Atlanta and against Purdue in Indianapolis.
For Auburn, the goals in Wednesday’s late tipoff against Jackson State are simple: Bounce back from the disappointment against Houston, tighten up in areas of focus before the schedule ramps back up and — perhaps, most importantly — get healthy.
“Our guys have got to understand that we’ve got to have the same type of preparation that we did for Houston in order to get ready for a good Jackson State team,” Pearl said. “For us, it’s all about just continuing to grow, continuing to build, and just trying to get better each week — which I think our guys have done a pretty good job of doing since that first game.”
To get you ready for Auburn’s second-to-last paycheck game of the season, here is this week’s Stretch 4 — starting with the latest on leading scorer Keyshawn Hall.
With Keyshawn Hall out for now, it’s an “open audition”
Like with its last injury scare, Auburn appears to have avoided the worst with Hall after he left the Houston game with less than five minutes to play.