Observations: Auburn 88, LSU 74
For the first time in several weeks, Auburn took care of business against a struggling team — and kept its slim NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
AUBURN — Maybe it was the suit.
Before what he called a “ridiculous tipoff” of 9 p.m. local time Tuesday night, Auburn head coach Steven Pearl walked onto the floor at Neville Arena wearing a nice jacket and dress pants. It was the kind of outfit that almost every basketball coach used to wear before the pandemic made the casual team gear look the new normal.
Pearl had been asked to wear a suit by one of his two senior starters — leading scorer Keyshawn Hall — for his final regular-season home game. He agreed to it, knowing that there would be some natural limitations to coaching in one again.
“It's uncomfortable,” Pearl said. “It's hot. I feel like I'm gonna rip through my pants every time I try and bend down. … It definitely kept me a little more calm, because you can rip through this thing if you get too excited.”
But that wasn’t the only throwback change that Auburn made Tuesday night, when it stopped the bleeding from what had been a brutal February by opening March with an 88-74 win over LSU.
As anyone who reads this newsletter regularly knows by now, the difference between wins and losses for Auburn in what has been a challenging and frustrating first season under Pearl has been what it does on defense.
Auburn is now 9-1 against high-major opponents this season when its defensive efficiency is below 110.0 — and 1-13 when that number is above that mark.
“If we stop players on the other team, we know we can score on offense,” point guard Tahaad Pettiford said. “It’s just taking pride in that, and knowing that's going to be a major key in us winning games or not winning games.”
On Tuesday night, Auburn held LSU to 109.8 and won by 14. While the visiting Tigers shot 55% from the field and 45% from deep, they turned it over 16 times. All but three of those were Auburn steals, which was a new season-high for SEC play.
Auburn also held LSU leading scorer and long-range sniper Max Mackinnon to just three points on 1-6 shooting. The hosts took away what the visitors had relied upon the most with what has been a top-50 offense nationally this season — taking care of the ball and letting it fly from deep.
“We went back to an old ball screen coverage… we just were a little more consistent with it tonight,” Pearl said. “And I thought we learned from some of the mistakes we made in previous games, which was really important.”
As Pettiford said, if Auburn could hold up its end of the bargain on defense, it knew it could rely on the offense to find success. Through all the difficulties of this season, Auburn still has one of the top dozen offenses in America, per KenPom.
The fans who decided to watch a struggling team in an obscenely late game were treated to a show on that end of the floor.
Pettiford played arguably his best-looking game of his up-and-down sophomore season. Kevin Overton shot from long distance with all the confidence in the world. Elyjah Freeman came through with timely plays in a faster-paced game, and Hall played well without scoring a ton.
“It feels amazing,” Pettiford said. “We've had a lot of downs this season. It's good to finally have an up going into SEC tournament and, hopefully, March Madness. Just trying to get that momentum that we need to go in there and show the world what we can do.”
In the grand scheme of things, Auburn’s win over an LSU team that is now 3-14 in SEC play might not matter much. The loss to Ole Miss over the weekend likely put Auburn on the outside looking in for the NCAA Tournament, the punishment for a meltdown over the month of February. There’s a good chance it will take an upset road win at rival Alabama on Saturday to get Auburn back into the field.
But there’s something to be said for taking care of business, especially when that had been such an issue over the last few weeks. Auburn can’t change its past. Each game, though, is a new opportunity to at least stay alive.
And winning this game mattered from an emotional perspective. Just ask KeShawn Murphy, who was also in the last regular-season home game of his college career.
“Honestly, man, I can't think school this school enough,” Murphy said. “I appreciate the coaches, the managers, everybody — down to the people that work for the school. I just really enjoyed this game today. I'm glad we got a win today, and I just want to keep that momentum going into whatever is next.”
Beating a struggling LSU team isn’t going to save Auburn’s season. It’s not going to be a sign that everything is “good” again. But, as Pearl said, if Auburn can play more like this down the stretch, it’s shown it’s capable of winning some big games.
And that change might be enough of a reason for him to keep wearing the suit.
“Maybe, you know?” Pearl said. “Maybe. I'll ask the guys. If the guys want me to wear it, I'll wear it.”
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 88-74 win over LSU, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
This is more of the defense Auburn has wanted to play
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