"Who's got the ball? Everybody's got the ball."
Auburn took some tough lessons away from its second-half defense at Ole Miss. It's got to apply those Tuesday night against Oklahoma.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — On Monday, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl was asked if there was a lesson to be learned from Ole Miss guard Sean Pedulla scoring 29 points — including 20 in the second half — on his team’s defense this past weekend.
“Yes,” Pearl said. “Yeah, there is.”
Long pause.
“To answer that specifically would be simply giving the game plan away,” Pearl continued. “It would simply be trying to give the game plan away.”
Pedulla’s offensive explosion against Auburn last Saturday didn’t hurt too much. After all, Auburn still outscored Ole Miss in the second half and won a Quad 1 SEC road game in a hostile environment by double-digits.
But it was pretty out-of-character for what we’ve seen from Auburn’s defense for most of its dominant 20-1 start to the season. This is the same team that, spearheaded by Denver Jones, has routinely held down opposing teams’ top guards.
And the quick turnaround to Auburn’s next opponent — Oklahoma, which it will play late Tuesday night back home inside Neville Arena — makes it easy for what Pedulla and Ole Miss did to stick out in the front of the minds of Pearl and his Tigers.
“Obviously, Pedulla did a fantastic job, and they did a great job of having him go down and attack,” Pearl said. “I think Oklahoma's got three dynamic guards that are all small, quick and can blow by you… Those three guards are really hard covers and really hard to stay in front of.
“And, so, that's one of the things that Ole Miss did that definitely, definitely hurt us.”
One of the best aspects of Auburn’s rise to the unquestioned top spot in college basketball this season has been its ability to adapt and adjust from game to game.
The Tigers have had the nation’s top-ranked offense for most of the season. (In fact, they’re currently tied with last year’s UConn team for the best offensive rating in the history of Division I men’s basketball.) The efficiency of Auburn’s offense is historic.
But, when National Player of the Year contender Johni Broome went down with an ankle injury during the second half of a low-scoring game at South Carolina, Auburn had to show it could win with defense and rebounding. It did so a week later at Georgia, and it did it again in Broome’s return against an elite Tennessee defense.
Then, last Saturday at Ole Miss, Auburn got back to its ultra-elite ways on offense. The Tigers had 22 assists on 30 made shots, and all five starters scored in double-figures. After a mini slump from deep, Auburn went a blistering 14-28 on 3-pointers in Oxford — its best performance in what is already a fantastic season in this category.
And, as is often the case in basketball, a phenomenal performance on one end of the floor came with room for improvement on the other end. After the win at Ole Miss, Pearl noted that the defense has “gotta continue to get better.”
Tuesday night’s return home after a week away is a perfect time to do that, because Oklahoma is coming to the Plains with plenty of momentum — especially on offense.