The Stretch 4: Keyshawn Hall is set to return for Auburn at MSU
Auburn's top scorer should be back for a crucial road test Wednesday night. Here's more on Hall — and a matchup the Tigers need to win.
AUBURN — Steven Pearl said Saturday that Keyshawn Hall’s absence from action was “indefinite,” yet “the length and the duration is up to him.”
The length and duration looks like it will just be one game, as Auburn’s leading scorer is set to return for a crucial road game at Mississippi State.
Hall was not listed on the official availability report for Auburn at Mississippi State, which was released Tuesday night. He was listed as out the night before Auburn’s road loss to Arkansas last Saturday.
Earlier on Tuesday, Pearl did not say if Hall would return, only noting that he had returned to practice Monday — the first one after the Arkansas loss.
“He had a great practice yesterday, and he’s out there getting shots right now,” Pearl said Tuesday afternoon. “Hope for another great practice today.”
Auburn has been without Hall for more than the last 50 minutes of game time in what is now a four-game losing streak.
Hall was benched for the final 12:38 of a home loss to Vanderbilt last Tuesday night with what Pearl called a “coach’s decision,” as Auburn was able to cut well into a double-digit lead with its top scorer sidelined. In that game, Hall went 3-13 from the floor — including an 0-8 mark from 2 — and only drew two trips to the free-throw line.
Auburn then ruled Hall out for the Saturday road game at Arkansas, although he made the trip. Pearl cited disciplinary reasons for the decision to sit one of his key players during a losing streak, saying prior to tipoff that Hall “did not live up to the standard and expectations of our program this week.”
“We’ve got to come together, and we’ve got to limit our distractions off the floor,” Pearl said Saturday. “We’ve got to stop being put in positions where we have to make decisions to discipline guys. If we can do that and really focus on basketball for a couple of weeks, this team’s shown that it has the ability to win big games.”
The Tigers lost by 13 to the Razorbacks, despite standout offensive performances from Tahaad Pettiford and KeShawn Murphy. Outside of those two, the rest of the Tigers shot 7-32 from the field. All five starters played 34-plus minutes, and Filip Jović was the only one of three reserves who saw more than three minutes of action.
“Obviously, it’s going to be hard for us to win games when Key’s not out there,” Pearl said Saturday night.
After sitting out for most of the last three halves of basketball, Hall will likely be a key part of the Tigers’ game plan as they start a more favorable six-game stretch to wrap up the regular season.
With Hall’s potential return, Auburn should have a better chance to walk out of a trip to Mississippi State on Wednesday night with a win that it truly needs in order to stay off of the NCAA Tournament bubble and build some quality momentum.
Auburn just wrapped up a six-game stretch in which it won its first two games — including a massive road win at SEC leader Florida — before dropping four in a row. Five of those six teams currently make up the top six in the conference. (Kentucky is the exception, and Auburn has that one next at home.)
Now, four of the Tigers’ next five games will come against teams that are currently in the bottom five in the SEC.
“You’ve got to kind of try and keep things in perspective,” Pearl said. “You look at the last six teams that we’ve played. In their previous five games, they’re a combined 30-6, and two of those losses came to Auburn. So, find me a tougher six-game stretch than what we just faced, you know? … Just trying to recognize that, while we want to win all those games, we went through a tough stretch.
“We're doing a lot of the right things. But none of that means anything if we don't learn from it and grow from it and try to be better for it. We'll take the things that we learned in that six-game stretch and try to apply them against a really good Mississippi State team.”
What a Keyshawn Hall return would mean in this matchup
While Hall has not had a positive impact as a defender for most of the season, his offense has been extremely valuable for Auburn. Per CBB Analytics, his on/off net rating of +12.2 in SEC play now ranks second on the team behind Pettiford.
The Tigers are 12-5 when Hall scores more than 15 points, and that includes seven wins over high-major opponents.
Counting his absence against Arkansas, they are 2-6 when he doesn’t clear that mark — and one of those wins was when he was held out of a blowout over Jackson State.
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