The Stretch 4: The Keys (no pun intended) to Auburn vs. Memphis
Auburn basketball heads to a familiar venue — Atlanta's State Farm Arena — to take on a brand-new but challenging squad from Memphis.
AUBURN — Steven Pearl doesn’t know why it’s taken so long for college basketball to do what it’s doing right now.
Two weeks after a high-scoring, dramatic exhibition game against Big 12 opponent Oklahoma State, Auburn basketball will wrap up its preseason preparations Thursday night in Atlanta’s State Farm Arena with a matchup against Memphis.
While Memphis isn’t in a high-major conference, it and Gonzaga have been treated like teams from one for a long time now. Penny Hardaway has put Memphis back into the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four years. Memphis, just outside the preseason top 50 in KenPom, played Auburn for the Maui Invitational title last year.
“It’s just so beneficial for everyone to be able to play against real competition,” Pearl said Tuesday afternoon. “Not the EA Sports All-Stars, you know?”
Throughout the early 2000s, college basketball teams often played exhibitions against barnstorming squads of ex-Division I players. One of the most notable ones was sponsored by EA Sports, and it even played Auburn — along with the “Global Sports All-Stars” — ahead of the 2002-03 season.
Times have changed. Exhibitions went from those matchups to games against non-Division I college teams. Now, the floodgates have been open to let high-majors play other high-majors, often in neutral-site venues that resemble tournament time.
“It’s been great for our guys,” Pearl said. “And, yeah, it’s been great because you were able to watch, like, good basketball right now. You know, watching Kentucky and Purdue, watching Michigan-St. John’s, watching Memphis-Arkansas, has been really good for us as coaches, but also for players to get prepared for the upcoming season.”
While there’s been a good-sized layoff between exhibitions for Auburn, Memphis is completely different. Hardaway’s Tigers played Arkansas on Monday night in Memphis, where a sizable early lead later evaporated into a 24-point loss.
“I mean, they’re up 15 on Arkansas,” Pearl said. “It was a tale of two halves. They were the harder-playing, more physical team in the first 20, and then it kind of flipped on them in the second half.”
Again, apologies to the EA Sports All-Stars. But Auburn is going to get a second true barometer of where it’s at in this new era under Pearl when it plays a regular NCAA Tournament team in Memphis on Thursday night in Atlanta.
What does Auburn expect from this Memphis matchup? What’s the latest on big man Ke’Shawn Murphy after his injury scare against Oklahoma State? And what do you need to know about two more newcomers to this squad?
We get into all of that in this week’s edition of The Stretch 4.
