What Auburn basketball will get from a "very Yale-like" Vermont

The Tigers officially open one of the most anticipated seasons in program history with a small-conference dynasty that won't fear the big stage.

Finally: It’s an Auburn basketball game day. As a reminder, we are running a discount for the first week of the season. New subscribers can get their first 12 months at the Observer for either $4 per month or $40 for the whole year.

The Observer is planning to be at every single Auburn basketball game this season — including this weekend’s showdown in Houston and the upcoming Maui Invitational. So, if you’re looking for in-depth coverage of Bruce Pearl’s Tigers, join us for what is shaping up to be a fun campaign on the Plains.

Also, we still have some more Observer koozies from our sale earlier this season. I’m going to use this off week in football to try to clear the rest of the inventory out and put that money to the basketball travel budget.

The koozies are $5 each, and I accept either Venmo or PayPal. If you’d like to claim one, send an email to the1andonlyjf@gmail.com. First come, first serve. We’ve still got a few in both colors.

SF Chad Baker-Mazara (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — When Auburn basketball officially opens one of the most anticipated seasons in program history Wednesday night, it will do so having already played a pair of Division I teams — and having beaten said teams by a combined 51 points.

But the last time the Tigers played a game that actually counted, they watched their hot streak come to an abrupt end with a 78-76 loss to Yale in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

And guess who Bruce Pearl sees when he looks at the first opponent that matters to the win-loss record since that bitter March exit?

“Vermont is very Yale-like, which should concern us all,” Pearl said earlier this week.

While plenty of preseason championship contenders spent their Opening Nights bashing opponents that were completely overmatched from the time they walked into the gym — Kansas over Howard, Alabama over UNC Asheville, Houston over Jackson State, Iowa State over Mississippi Valley State, Duke over Maine, Arizona over Canisius, etc. — Auburn took a different approach with its first paycheck game.

Vermont has won the America East Conference in six of its last eight years. It’s one of the gold standards of small-conference basketball, having only lost 13 games in their league over that span. Since the calendar flipped to 2024, Vermont has only lost twice in total: a road game at NJIT in February, and a tournament game to Duke.

“They've been picked to win their league eight out of the last 10 years,” Pearl said. “They've got a chance to four-peat, which has never happened in that league before this year. So we knew that this was going to be a game against the (NCAA Tournament) field, right from the very beginning.”

Oh, and that Yale team that knocked off Auburn? Vermont beat it last December.

Of course, Auburn’s loss to Yale in the NCAA Tournament should come with some important context. Chad Baker-Mazara, the team’s No. 3 scorer, was ejected early in the game. That hurt an already-inconsistent backcourt, and it still took some outstanding 3-point shooting for Yale to pull off the 2-point upset.

Even without pointing out the whole “returning an All-American” thing with center Johni Broome, Auburn is deeper and more experienced at guard. In addition to bringing back Denver Jones, the Tigers added top Georgia Tech scorer Miles Kelly and Furman veteran point guard JP Pegues. They also have gotten great early returns from the freshman combo of Tahaad Pettiford and Jahki Howard.

And, even when he’s not scoring at a high clip, Auburn gets a ton out of Baker-Mazara when he’s available. In the two exhibitions against Furman and Florida Atlantic, Baker-Mazara went a combined 0-7 from deep. He also was a team-high +44 in plus/minus across those victories.

“Yeah, we’re better with Chad on the floor,” Pearl said.

Still, it’s not reasonable to expect Auburn to blow Vermont out like it did with Florida Atlantic a few nights ago at Neville Arena. The Tigers opened as 14.5-point favorites over the Catamounts, and that lines up with the pregame projections from ratings systems such as KenPom and T-Rank.

But there are two additional factors working in Auburn’s favor heading into the season opener, and they go hand in hand.

Vermont played Monday night just a couple of hours up Highway 280, beating UAB wire-to-wire by a final score of 67-62.

Not only are the Catamounts having to make a quicker-than-usual turnaround between games, but the Tigers have a full 40 minutes of film on them.

And, in this particular matchup, knowledge is power.

“Personnel is going to be important in this game,” Pearl said. “Paying attention to the personnel, they’re a little more like Furman than Florida Atlantic. Completely different opponent than we played Friday night. … It’ll be an important game and an important scout — to be able to lock into a really different scout with unique abilities.”

So, with that in mind, let’s take a closer look at this unique team that will face Auburn in the opener Wednesday night.