The Stretch 4: What could make this Auburn team different from the rest

There's one area in which the Tigers are playing their best — by far — in the Bruce Pearl Era. And A&M will put that to the test.

Note: Apologies for no newsletter yesterday. To make a long story short, I got the flu sometime late in my trip to Arkansas and didn’t have the energy to do much of anything but sleep after I got back to Auburn.

I’ll still be working as much as possible while I recover at home — like covering the basketball game remotely Tuesday night — but I wanted to give everyone a heads up in case business looks a little different this week.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

Pretty much every aspect of this 2023-24 Auburn basketball team is something we’ve already seen before from the Tigers under Bruce Pearl.

Highly efficient offense? The Final Four team had a standout mark in effective field goal percentage like this one. Excellent from 2-point range? The 2019-2020 team whose postseason was robbed by the COVID outbreak was like that, too.

The Tigers’ best squads all under Pearl have been able to take care of the basketball, too, finishing towards the top of major college basketball in turnover rate. This season, Auburn is back to playing a fast-paced brand of basketball — top-40 in average possession length — after slowing things down last year.

On defense, Auburn is on pace to have a top-15 defense nationally in effective field goal percentage for the third consecutive season. All but Pearl’s first two squads had strong block percentages like this season’s team currently has.

And while this isn’t the breakneck, havoc-creating pressure of the Final Four campaign, being back in the top 100 in turnover percentage is usually a good barometer for overall defensive success in the Pearl Era.

There’s one notable exception, though — and that particular aspect of the Tigers’ 12-2 start will be put to the ultimate test in their SEC home opener.

After handing Arkansas its worst loss in the history of Bud Walton Arena, Auburn is back inside the friendly confines of Neville Arena on Tuesday night. The Tigers have now won seven straight games. All of them have come by at least 16 points. Four of them have come by 25 or more points.

It’s a rampaging run that has stood out to the computers, as Auburn is now up to No. 8 in the NCAA’s NET and carries a top-six mark in ratings systems such as KenPom, T-Rank and EvanMiya. The AP voters took notice, too, although the Tigers’ jump to No. 16 in this week’s poll probably had more to do with the teams that lost ahead of them.

Auburn will carry that new ranking into a matchup with Texas A&M. And while the Aggies have lost five of their last nine — including a shocking 15-point home defeat to LSU on Saturday — the Tigers aren’t going to overlook them in the slightest, even as nearly double-digit favorites.

“I suppose if there was a tough matchup for Auburn basketball over the last few years, it would be Texas A&M,” Pearl said Monday. “They’ve beaten us five out of the last six times we’ve played them. They’ve beaten us two out of the last three times we’ve played them at Neville. The only time we beat them was when Walker Kessler blocked about 10 shots and College GameDay was in the house for an AUTLIVE game. They beat us in the SEC Tournament the year we won the regular-season championship.

“So they’ve clearly had our number. Buzz Williams does a great job, and he’s out-coached me in our matchups. And that’s going to happen once in a while, I guess.”

Can these Tigers end the recent woes against the Aggies on Tuesday night? And how much can that special, not-yet-seen-before aspect of Auburn’s performances play a factor in this matchup? For that and more, here’s this week’s Stretch 4.

(Steven Leonard/Auburn Tigers)

Cleaning the glass at a sparkling rate

On Saturday, Arkansas’ first five possessions against Auburn went like this:

• Missed shot, Auburn defensive rebound

• Missed shot, Auburn defensive rebound

• Missed shot, Auburn defensive rebound

• Missed shot, Auburn defensive rebound

• Missed shot, Auburn defensive rebound

The Razorbacks went one-and-done exclusively for the opening three minutes of the game. And, when they started hitting shots, they had to make the most of their initial attempts. Arkansas didn’t get an offensive rebound until the 12:52 mark, and that was a dead ball board. It didn’t get a live offensive rebound until the 7:12 mark.

By the end of the game, Arkansas had only rebounded seven of its 40 misses from the field and turned them into a grand total of four points. In a game that was defined by Auburn being the more physical team in the paint, the Tigers ensured that the Razorbacks weren’t able to get quality second-chance looks.

“Go down there, don't leak out, grab the ball before we take off,” small forward Chad Baker-Mazara said after the win. “(The coaches) have been on us about that pretty often, so we had to make sure today that didn't happen — especially with a team like this. At home, it can build some momentum with second-chance points. We didn't want that to happen.”

Allowing offensive rebounds has been a recurring Achilles heel for Auburn basketball over the years for various reasons. But, this season, the Tigers have been far and away better at cleaning the defensive glass than they’ve been at any point under Pearl.

According to KenPom, Auburn is allowing offensive rebounds on only 25.8% of its opponents misses, which ranks 55th nationally. Here’s where the Tigers finished in that category under Pearl: 323rd, 220th, 307th, 148th, 326th, 144th, 324th, 292nd and 302nd.

“It’s been a focus,” Pearl said when asked about the sharp improvement in defensive rebounding.

And the Tigers’ rise has been a true team effort. Johni Broome has improved from 22.8% to 27.5% in defensive rebounding rate. Jaylin Williams currently has a career-high 16.4%. Denver Jones is nearly at 10%, which is a massive increase from what the Tigers got at the 2 guard last season. Chaney Johnson (17.2%), Dylan Cardwell (15.3%) and Baker-Mazara (12.5%) are putting up great numbers off the bench.

And point guards Tre Donaldson (13.7%) and Aden Holloway (6.4%) are going above and beyond what you would expect from players of their size. Against Arkansas, the two young point guards combined for 11 defensive rebounds.

By being better on the defensive glass, Auburn has been able to put together an elite defense without overly relying on blocking shots or creating a ton of turnovers like in years past.

That’s important for this upcoming game, because…