Observations: Auburn 88, Mississippi State 66
The No. 1 Tigers delivered a loud-and-clear message Tuesday night against a top-15 team: They've still got plenty of dudes.
(David Gray/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — In 2014, before the start of training camp, the Golden State Warriors got a motto from new head coach Steve Kerr: “Strength in Numbers.”
The Warriors would win an NBA title that season, with the phrase plastered on signage all over their old home of Oracle Arena. Although Golden State’s roster and style would evolve with four championships over eight seasons, that motto was essential to its DNA: No star player was above all, and everybody had to contribute.
While Bruce Pearl is no fan of the Golden State Warriors — he’s loyal to his hometown Boston Celtics, the reigning NBA champions — his Auburn basketball program has adopted that “Strength in Numbers” mentality. Johni Broome said it was the team motto after a win in Cancun in 2022. Chris Moore brought it up after Auburn’s SEC Tournament semifinal win over Mississippi State last March.
And, while unspoken, it was on full display Tuesday night on the Plains.
Broome, widely known as a top-two player in all of college basketball this season, was on the bench in street clothes and a walking boot. A sprained ankle that he suffered three days earlier in a narrow road win over last-place South Carolina has him out indefinitely. Auburn was going to have to take on a top-15 Mississippi State team without him.
But Auburn basketball is more than just a single player. This is a program that relies on depth, from the new-look starting lineup and revised bench rotation to a student section that overflowed from the court to several rows of standing-room only real estate on two different floors of the arena.
(And, in an act of true home-court advantage, one of those students tweeted “wde” from the official Mississippi State men’s basketball account while standing behind a staffer’s unoccupied laptop.)
Auburn was down a superstar, yet it quickly found itself up 10-0.
Chaney Johnson, replacing Broome in the starting lineup, put back his own early miss for the opening bucket.
Chad Baker-Mazara, the Tigers’ second-most valuable player behind Broome, blocked a shot and scored a driving layup on the other end. Johnson then stole the ball, leading to a Baker-Mazara 3.
Miles Kelly, who eventually pulled down 10 boards in a game in which Auburn was missing the SEC’s best rebounder, corralled a Mississippi State miss and sent it up the floor for yet another Baker-Mazara 3.
Mississippi State would eventually whittle that 10-point lead down to 3 midway through the first half. Then Auburn went on a 13-1 run, with all five members of the new starting lineup scoring: Baker-Mazara, Kelly, Johnson, Denver Jones and Dylan Cardwell.
Auburn would lead by double-digits for the final 26:36 of regulation. Mississippi State would never get closer than 13 in the entire second half. A late 15-2 run doubled that lead and sent Auburn sailing toward a 22-point win in a Quad 1 matchup.
“You can't be anything but impressed,” Pearl said. “You can't.”
Five Auburn players scored in double figures, with Tahaad Pettiford joining the party off the bench with a pair of 3s and — at one point — a stunning breakaway windmill dunk. Auburn scored 40-plus points in both halves and improved on its already commanding lead nationally in offensive rating.
Mississippi State’s leading scorer, Josh Hubbard, had to get 11 of his 17 points from the free-throw line. He didn’t hit a shot from the field until there was 8:09 left on the clock, and he combined with fellow star Cameron Matthews to go 4-22 shooting. The Bulldogs shot 34.9% as a team, including 3-24 (12.5%) from 3-point range.
That’s true team basketball. That’s strength in numbers.
“Our guys, they knew what they needed to do,” Pearl said. “And, like I said, everybody on the roster stepped up.”
And the Tigers picked a perfect time to do it. Not only did Auburn rise to the occasion with Broome out — it won comfortably on a night when two other SEC teams ranked in the top-five (Alabama and Florida) lost to even lower-rated teams at home.
A little less than a third of the way through conference play, Auburn and Ole Miss are the only two undefeated teams left in the league.
“It's gonna be about matchups,” Pearl said. “And it's about not getting too high, not getting too low. This is what's crazy, OK? We just beat a team by 22 that beat a team that we just beat by three… by 30. They beat South Carolina by 30-something.
“It's just wacky in this league. You can't really predict what's going to happen. It's just get to the next one and just see if we can keep getting better.”
Here are five Observations from Auburn’s 88-66 win over Mississippi State, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)