Mailbag 238: Where can Auburn basketball take the next step?

This week: Assists vs. isos, the guard rotation, Tahaad Pettiford, KeShawn Murphy, seeding ceilings, Alex Golesh and Botanic's brunch

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — A lot can change in a couple of weeks.

Two mailbags ago, the headline read “How can Auburn basketball get back on track?” There were fears from fans that the Tigers’ season might be verging on disaster after falling to 1-3 in the conference with the underwhelming road loss at Missouri.

Since then, Auburn has ripped off four straight wins, including its first victory at Florida in 30 years and its biggest comeback win in the SEC in six years. The Tigers are firmly in the NCAA Tournament picture and can still find themselves in the hunt for the top spots in the SEC.

While Auburn’s next four games are pretty brutal, there’s more confidence and hope than ever before with this bunch. Now the question isn’t “What is it going to take to get back on track?” It’s “Where can these Tigers get even better?”

We break that down in this week’s mailbag, along with a bunch of great questions about this basketball team and a few about the early days of the new-look football program. There’s some Grubserver fun at the end, too.

Let’s go.

The basketball team seems to have turned the corner with this four-game winning streak. D has improved to the point where it’s almost a strength. What is one area where the team needs to improve in order to take the next step?

Also, for BLOBs and SLOBs, it seems this team hasn’t had the success that teams under Bruce did. Under Bruce, it seemed we were always getting a cheap bucket or two due to the scheming... Who is responsible for calling and drawing up these plays?

Sparky

For me, there’s one clear-cut answer: 3-point shooting. What happens if Auburn starts knocking down more shots from deep on a consistent basis?

Prior to the Texas game, Auburn had won three straight SEC games shooting 9-51 (17.6%) on 3-pointers. The Tigers were -48 on points off 3s in those games, and they still won by a combined +25. As Steven Pearl mentioned several times, if Auburn just shoots average from deep in those games, they’re all blowouts. That’s wild.

Wednesday night, we saw what a difference strong 3-point shooting can make for this team. Auburn went 11-21 (52.4%) on 3s, marking its best performance since Queens. The Tigers needed all of that to overcome an extreme outlier showing from the Longhorns early and put together a nearly all-time great second half of offense.

Consider this: Auburn has KenPom’s No. 4 offense in the SEC during league play, yet it’s No. 15 out of 16 teams in 3-point percentage (29.8%) and dead last in percentage of points coming off 3s (22.8%).

Again, become merely average from deep, and you’ve got an offense that can be even scarier. Auburn has the ability to score 1-on-1, avoid turnovers and get to the free-throw line consistently. Knocking home 3s off of that spacing and gravity? Watch out.