Observations: Auburn 112, Jackson State 66
A 46-point win, several eye-popping stats and one debut to remember — if you're Auburn, you'll take all that and run to Vegas with it.
AUBURN — In the story of Auburn basketball’s first season under Steven Pearl, the 46-point home win over Jackson State will be a minor footnote at the absolute best.
There’s only so much that is consequential from a game in which Auburn was covering the point spread with 2:07 left in the first half. Jackson State was always going to be the worst team Auburn plays all season, and that played out accordingly.
Because of the lopsided nature of the 112-66 victory, there won’t be much to recall later from a team perspective for Auburn.
Yes, this was Auburn’s second-best game in offensive efficiency (148.3) in the last 30 years. It was the Tigers’ fourth-best game in effective field goal percentage (74.6%) and their best in 2-point shooting (87.9%). That last one was a new record by a long shot, as the previous mark was “just” 75.8%.
Auburn also hadn’t scored that many points in a single game in more than six years, and it did so without the services of leading scorer Keyshawn Hall — who sat out with a foot sprain that he suffered late in a 1-point loss to then-No. 1 Houston.
“We did what we were supposed to do, in a game that you’re supposed to win by a large margin,” Pearl said. “I’m glad our guys were able to step up to the task and do it.”
Still, down the road, people might remember that this was Filip Jović’s first breakout performance in college. They might remember how KeShawn Murphy didn’t miss from 2 or that Sebastian Williams-Adams didn’t miss a field goal at all.
And they’re definitely going to remember what Simon Walker did: Five 3-pointers on five attempts for 15 perfect points in his first seven minutes of college basketball after being sidelined for two months with a foot injury that required surgery.
“It was definitely good to get that weight off my shoulders and get settled in,” Walker said. “I’m just glad I made a couple more after that and had a good first game. Got that under my belt.”
You can call that the understatement of the century. Walker hit four corner 3-pointers that barely touched the net. During that streak, he lofted a deep heat check from the coaching box line next to Pearl and banked it home.
“I’m not going to count the bank, so he only made four,” Pearl joked. “But the four he made… what part of the center of the rim did he hit? They were just really nice.”
Through five official games in charge of the program, Pearl has proven himself to be a tough self-critic. In a game that was separated by double-digits for all but the first seven minutes, Pearl lamented that Auburn’s defense was “just OK” and playing even with Jackson State for the first few minutes of the second half was “not acceptable.”
And don’t get him started on rebounding. Or maybe you should?
“To only out rebound that team by two is kind of embarrassing, because they were the worst rebounding team in college basketball,” Pearl said. “To only be +2 there, teams are going to look at that and get excited. So we took a step back in that area, while in the Houston game, I thought we did a really good job.
“Part of it was we only missed 23 shots. We shot 65%, so I can’t be that big of a jerk, I guess. … Well, we had seven offensive rebounds in the first half, right? We missed — damn, I guess I got to take that back. We only missed seven shots in the second half. We only missed seven shots in the second half? Yeah, that’s OK.”
Whatever the final verdict, Auburn will take it. This was the last tune-up game before the start of a brutal stretch of non-conference play that opens with Oregon in Las Vegas next Monday, followed by Michigan in a Sweet 16 rematch.
Heading into that on the heels of one of its most dominant performances in recent memory? It beats the alternative, but it will still be easy to move on quickly.
“This game needs to be in the past for us now,” Jović said. “We need to grow and look to Las Vegas tomorrow.”
Here are three big Observations from Auburn’s 112-66 win over Jackson State, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
