The Stretch 4: Inside Tre Donaldson and Aden Holloway's red-hot run at the 1
Auburn's young point guards have combined for 78 points, 25 assists and just two turnovers over the last three big wins. That's elite.
PG Tre Donaldson (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
Last week, after Auburn cruised to a 25-point win over UNC Asheville in Huntsville, Tre Donaldson sat behind the microphone and made a bold claim about himself and fellow point guard Aden Holloway.
“I feel like — and a lot of people feel like — that we’re the best guard duo in the country at the 1,” Donaldson said.
Donaldson would go on to say that the claim would be tested a few days later against USC and potential No. 1 overall pick Isaiah Collier. The duo passed that test, helping lead Auburn to a 16-point victory over USC that never felt close past the first few minutes.
The win was Auburn’s third straight, dating back to a 28-point rout of Indiana in Atlanta, and all of them had come against teams that had played in the NCAA Tournament last season.
During that three-game stretch, Auburn’s pair of prolific point guards had combined for a stunning 78 points, 25 assists and just two turnovers.
“Confident as ever,” Donaldson said Thursday, just one day before Auburn’s final pre-Christmas game against Alabama State. “It’s just fun. I think that’s the biggest thing, just us having fun.”
With the two youngest players in Auburn’s incredibly deep 11-man rotation playing with all that confidence, the Tigers are definitely having fun on the floor.
According to Team Rankings, Auburn’s assist-to-turnover ratio over that stretch is a whopping 3.444. No one in college basketball during its last three games is higher than 2.900. For the season, Auburn is No. 5 nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.891). Under Bruce Pearl, the Tigers have never finished a season higher than 55th.
This blistering run of high-scoring, high-efficiency basketball has been so impressive, you might forget that Auburn started the month of December with an upset loss at Appalachian State. That was the Tigers’ second loss of the campaign, joining a season-opening defeat at the hands of Baylor, and it’s a big reason why the human polls haven’t caught up with what the numbers say about where Auburn sits nationally.
“We've lost two games so far, and Baylor's backcourt and Appalachian State's backcourt outplayed us,” Pearl said. “I think those guys didn't take that as a criticism. It's just a fact. Therefore, they recognize — all of our guards — competing on every possession and getting some help from our bigs. … I think it's Tre and Aden's recognition as younger players, knowing it's the learning curve and knowing that night in and night out, everybody's got pretty good guards.
“The great teams have great guards and great frontline players. Guards have to bring it every night.”
Not to take anything at all away from the recent surges from shooting guards Denver Jones and K.D. Johnson — or the consistent combination of Chad Baker-Mazara and Chris Moore at small forward — but a lot of Auburn’s current run goes back to what it’s getting out of Holloway and Donaldson as floor generals.
Over the last three wins, Holloway is averaging 15.3 points and 4.3 assists per game while shooting an even 50% from beyond the arc. Donaldson is averaging 10.7 points and 3.3 assists per game, hitting a ridiculous 84.6% of his 2-point field goals and averaging over a steal per contest. And, again, they’ve turned the ball over twice.
“I feel like we've been doing a great job,” Holloway said. “I feel like we can do a better job though, at the one position. … I'm just in the mindset of 'Just do more,' really.”
For more on the elite play from the two young point guards, along with a preview of tonight’s Alabama State game and a specific stat to watch, here is this week’s edition of The Stretch 4.
PG Tre Donaldson (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
Tre Donaldson’s confidence is through the roof
During this three-game winning streak, Donaldson has been sixth on Auburn in minutes played. Despite that, he’s third in plus/minus (+43), only behind Jaylin Williams and Baker-Mazara.
Although he scored just seven points against USC — while only missing one shot from the field, mind you — Donaldson had scored in double figures in three straight games. In the App State loss, he was the lone bright spot in a backcourt that underwhelmed as a whole.
Even though Donaldson isn’t the starting point guard, his minutes have made a major increase from last season. The former two-sport star has fully settled into being a big-time basketball player, and the evidence is showing up all across the stat sheet as a sophomore.
“Confidence,” Donaldson said. “I knew I could play. … It was just a matter of getting on the court and showing everybody that I can.”