At 11-0, men are off to best start in 21 years

[aubiefifty 18,230]

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At 11-0, Auburn is off to best start in 21 years

Updated Dec 22, 2019;Posted Dec 22, 2019

5-6 minutes

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1. Auburn Basketball

AP

The Auburn bench celebrates a three-point basket against Lehigh during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Julie Bennett)

As the calendar inches closer to 2020, it wouldn’t be farfetched to say that Auburn is the hottest team in the country.

The Tigers improved to 11-0 on Saturday after dispatching visiting Lehigh, 74-51, at Auburn Arena. Bruce Pearl’s team is one of four unbeaten programs still standing this season — along with Duquesne, San Diego State and Liberty — and Auburn is the only one still undefeated from a major conference.

The Tigers have now won 23 of its last 24 games dating back to last season, which is the best record in the country during that stretch. The lone setback, of course, was the team’s heartbreaking Final Four loss to eventual-champion Virginia. Impressive as that may be, Auburn’s 11-0 start is the program’s best in more than 20 years — since the 1998-99 Tigers opened the year 17-0 before their first loss.

“We aren’t really looking at the records like that,” point guard J’Von McCormick said. “We just take it game by game and try to focus.”

Though Auburn’s players aren’t looking at them, those records are tough to not notice.

Auburn’s run to start this season is the fourth-best start in program history. Aside from the 17-0 start in 1998-98, the Tigers started 19-0 during the 1958-59 season and 14-0 during the 1927-28 campaign. Clearly, it has been a while since an Auburn team has been this successful out of the game.

Making it even more noteworthy has been the manner in which the Tigers have done it this year — with an identity that is pretty contrasting from the formula the team used last year on its way to the program’s first ever Final Four.

“We're getting a little bit of an identity of our ability to make plays, turn people over, create some offense for our defense, which we've talked about all season, is really our biggest opportunity to win games,” Pearl said. “Offensively, we’re not as cohesive.”

Auburn exceled last season with a high-octane offense that thrived in transition and on 3-pointers — often some deep 3-pointers, at that — behind the backcourt duo of Jared Harper and Bryce Brown, as well as first-round NBA Draft pick Chuma Okeke. This season, the offense just hasn’t been as consistent for Auburn, which is shooting 46.6 percent on the year — including 33.5 percent from beyond the arc — with only 31 percent of its points coming off 3-pointers. Last year, Auburn shot 37.7 percent from deep and had 43.4 percent of its points come from deep while leading the nation in 3-pointers attempted.

This 11-0 iteration of Auburn has gotten some timely 3-pointers, of course, from the likes of Samir Doughty and J’Von McCormick — who knocked down three of them in as many possessions Saturday against Lehigh on his way to a game-high 18 points with four assists — but these Tigers have relied on more of an inside-out approach offensively and an improved defense that has limited opponents to 66.2 points per game (down from 69.2 last season) on just 40.3 percent shooting (down from 44.2 percent last year), including 29.4 percent from deep.

That was again the case against Lehigh, as Auburn held it to 35.8 percent shooting, including just 2-of-11 from deep, while scoring a season-high 30 points off 19 turnovers. It was the sixth time this season Auburn has scored at least 20 points off turnovers, including the third time in the last four games.

The Tigers also got seven blocks on the night, with six of them courtesy of Anfernee McLemore, who added nine points and seven rebounds to his line. The other came from Austin Wiley, who finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds, marking his fourth double-double of the season.

“Our defense was once again the difference,” Pearl said. “Our coaches do an outstanding job with game planning. And I think we got a pretty good ability to affect the outcome of games. We kind of wore them down a little bit.”

That’s going to have to remain the M.O. for Pearl’s team as it approaches SEC play — the Tigers have one last nonconference game against Lipscomb on Dec. 29 before starting league action in January — at least until Auburn gets its half-court offense more consistent and settled in.

“I told my guys the champion of our conference this year is going to be the team that gets up for every night, that defends every night, that's excited to play every night because there's so much parity,” Pearl said. “There's nobody that's that much better than anybody else. And that's why we're undefeated is, because for the most part, we've played with pretty good effort and energy. We’ve got to shoot it better, we’ve got to execute better, we’ve got to prepare better.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.