Observations: Auburn 80, Vanderbilt 65
Jaylin Williams didn't miss a single shot (again), the defense forced a long drought (again), and Auburn won by double-digits (again).
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
If you want proof of how much the standard for Auburn basketball has changed, look no further than what happened a cold Wednesday night in Nashville.
From 2002 to 2017, Auburn lost to Vanderbilt inside Memorial Gymnasium 10 straight times. The peculiar old-school venue, with its weird sight lines and baseline benches, had been a house of horror for the Tigers.
Then Auburn finally beat Vanderbilt on the road in 2019, the first victory in a run that would go all the way to the Final Four. Two years later, in the midst of a rough stretch in a COVID season, Auburn won again in Nashville. But last season featured a return to bad memories, with the Tigers losing to the Commodores on a last-second shot in what would be a six-game losing streak on the road.
Auburn was out to prove that this trip was going to be different and that last year’s loss was just a one-off. It did so by going on a 25-4 run in the first half and never leading by less than 13 points in an 80-65 win — the Tigers’ 10th straight victory by double-digits.
Auburn averaged 1.311 points per possession on offense. Jaylin Williams didn’t miss a single shot, yet again, in a 21-point outing. The Tigers were +9 in rebounds and +16 in points in the paint, with both centers Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell having standout performances.
But the standard has changed, because Bruce Pearl spent the majority of his postgame radio interview lamenting his team’s performance after halftime. At one point, he said the Tigers “will not beat any good teams on the road playing like that.”
“Not happy with how we played in the second half,” Pearl would later tell reporters. “Vanderbilt was 2-5 from the foul line in the first half. In the second half, they shoot 25 free throws. You know, it’s hard to get in any kind of flow.”
Even with 80 points in a road win at a venue that has historically been rough on the program, Pearl wants his team to know that it hasn’t arrived.
Auburn might be the hottest team in major college basketball — no other power-conference program has won double-digit games in a row, thanks to Texas Tech’s blowout loss at Houston on Wednesday night — and a top-five team in most computer ratings systems.
But these Tigers can play better for all 40 minutes. They’ve been made well aware of that.
And that drive could push this team to even further heights. After all, the last two Auburn teams that have started SEC play 4-0 have gone on to hang a banner as conference champions.
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 15-point win over Vanderbilt, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
PF Jaylin Williams (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
Jaylin Williams keeps playing virtually perfect basketball
It’s possible that a player can have a better game than Williams did against Vanderbilt. He did have a turnover, and he was called for a foul.
Other than that? You’re not going to find any flaws in his performance. Williams went a perfect 7-7 from the field — including two 3-pointers — and a perfect 5-5 from the free-throw line. He added eight rebounds, continuing his improved rate of cleaning the boards as a fifth-year senior.
And his best play of the game was a gorgeous behind-the-back assist to Denver Jones.
Let’s not wait until the Nerd Stats portion of the program to get to what Williams did in that department. He led Auburn in plus/minus (+20), PER (24.5), floor percentage (90.6%) and offensive rating (211.6). Those last three numbers are among the best any Auburn player has had in any game this season.
Williams didn’t force anything, either. After getting off to a red-hot start, he only shot the ball twice in the second half. By doing that, he preserved a virtually perfect night.
“Once I got to 5-for-5, that's when I was like, ‘OK,’” Williams said. “The scoreboard is behind me with the stats, so I kept looking behind like, alright. K.D. (Johnson) in the second half was like, 'You ain't missed yet?' I was like, 'Nah.' He was like, 'You better take only layups to stay perfect.' I was like, 'Alright, bet.'
“The open shots I had, they were when they were pressuring us a little bit, so I wasn't really feeling those shots to begin with. Then I was looking for my teammates. Things ended up pretty good for me.”
Williams’ deference to his teammates, even on a night when he literally didn’t miss, stood out to his head coach — who pointed out that he also went 8-12 from the field at Vanderbilt last season.