The Stretch 4: What lessons did Auburn learn vs. Oklahoma State?
The Tigers spent two days watching film after the loss. Here are the takeaways on offense and defense, plus updates on two centers.
AUBURN — On the trip back from Birmingham to Auburn last Wednesday night, Steven Pearl gave Bruce Pearl a call.
Auburn’s old head coach had a courtside seat to the unofficial debut of Auburn’s new head coach. The elder Pearl got to be a fan, standing and cheering for the Tigers team he helped build all the way to the final buzzer of an overtime thriller.
But, after Auburn’s 97-95 exhibition loss to Oklahoma State, he got to give insight as a head coach who had won over 700 games to his son and successor.
“I was just, like, ‘Hey, what are some of your thoughts?’” Steven Pearl said Tuesday. “He was good. He said, ‘You guys obviously have pieces, and that’s really all you can as for at this point in the year.’”
Now it’s up to Pearl and his staff to put those pieces together.
A mostly brand-new Auburn roster got to measure itself up against a potential NCAA Tournament team in Oklahoma State in the middle of October. It will get a chance at another one a week from Thursday night, when it faces Memphis in Atlanta.
Then, the games start to count for real: Three home paycheck games to open the new era, followed by a return to Birmingham to face a Houston team that some believe might be the best in all of college basketball this season.
The biggest benefit of the new-school schedule for Auburn is that this team, led by a first-time head coach, gets to do a lot of learning between its two exhibitions. When the Tigers tip it off at State Farm Arena, it will have been two whole weeks since the game against the Cowboys. There won’t be a gap like that the rest of the way.
Auburn “spent two full days watching film” from the Oklahoma State game. Pearl said he had 74 different defensive clips to go over with his team. Offensive coordinator Mike Burgomaster “probably had 60-something” for his end of the floor.
The Tigers know they have a lot of work to do before the trip to play Memphis, much less a non-conference schedule that includes Houston, Purdue, Arizona, NC State and a loaded Players Era Festival field.
That’s why it was encouraging for Pearl to see how well Auburn practiced Monday afternoon back at Neville Arena. He called it the best practice he’s seen from All-SEC point guard Tahaad Pettiford. He also praised former Big 12 top scorer Keyshawn Hall, who is “doing a great job of doing the small things that leaders really need to do to help a team be successful.”
“Guys responded well,” Pearl said.
What were the biggest lessons from Auburn’s exhibition against Oklahoma State, and what’s the health status of the Tigers’ top two center options? Let’s dive into all of that in this week’s edition of The Stretch 4.
Auburn is going to play it safe with KeShawn Murphy
The only thing that would have been a bigger negative for Auburn from the exhibition against Oklahoma State than the result itself was a serious injury to KeShawn Murphy.
With 4:22 left in the second half and Auburn trailing by four, Murphy slipped on a wet spot on the Boutwell Auditorium floor while trying to help up teammate Sebastian Williams-Adams. The freshman ended up landing on top of Murphy, who had to be helped off the floor and did not return to action.
Murphy avoided a serious injury, with Auburn classifying it as a “mild hip flexor strain” and a “mild MCL sprain.” As Pearl noted Tuesday, it could have been a whole lot worse.