2/21/23 Auburn articles

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Jason Caldwell's Monday morning quarterback column

Jason Caldwell

4–5 minutes

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No room for error

With four games left in the SEC regular basketball season, to say it’s crunch time for Bruce Pearl’s Tigers would be an understatement. At 18-9 overall and 8-6 in league play, Auburn is now officially in must-win territory this week when Ole Miss comes to town. That’s not even in question now with games at Kentucky, at Alabama and Tennessee at home all that’s left in the regular season.

It’s just hard to see this team winning in either Lexington or Tuscaloosa at the moment. I am not saying it can’t happen, but as it stands today it would be very surprising if Auburn goes on the road and wins either game.

Because it’s a pretty soft bubble in terms of potential NCAA Tournament teams, the Tigers could absolutely still get in the Big Dance at 9-9 in SEC play, but winning two of the remaining four games would be a much better situation.

Auburn is still 30th in the NET rankings and still has games against No. 2 Alabama, No. 3 Tennessee and No. 33 Kentucky remaining. By the time the dust settles on the regular season, Auburn’s NET will probably be somewhere around 30 or in the upper 20’s. It’s not the be-all, end-all for the NCAA Selection Committee, but those rankings hold a ton of weight.

With all the numbers and analytics involved, really the only number that matters now is two. Win two of the next four and Auburn will be in. The ball is in their court. Time to do work.

New world in college baseball

Late in Sunday’s game with Indiana leading Auburn 10-1, the Hoosiers were still running and had a stolen base and also gave the green light to swing on a 3-0 count. While it’s something that has always been an unwritten rule in baseball over the years, it served as a teaching moment for Butch Thompson following the loss.

With a 10-run rule in place for SEC games this season, gone are the days when teams back off and play station-to-station baseball and try not to embarrass the competition. The change in rules mean teams are going to push the envelope and try to end games as quickly as possible. It’s a brave new world in that front and many others.

One of those is timing rules in place for pitching. For a mound visit, coaches or teammates only have 30 seconds to talk to the pitcher before they begin the 20-second pitch clock. Making a pitching change only gives teams 2:30 from the time they cross the warning track onto the field of play until they have to throw the first pitch to the batter.

Watching several games from around the country, the biggest issue is going to be calling strikes on batters for "not being alert to the pitcher" with 10 seconds left on the clock. I saw several strikes called on the batter for what the umpire deemed as stalling or not being ready for the pitch. That’s going to get called in a big situation this year and it’s going to get ugly.

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On the right track

There is no doubt that Auburn swimming and diving is in great hands with Ryan Wochomurka after what the Tigers did over the weekend at the SEC Championships. The men’s team finished second behind Florida, the best finish for the program since 2016. In just his second year back on the Plains after a very successful stint at Houston, the former All-American swimmer for the Tigers knows what is possible at Auburn and that is quickly showing. The women’s team finished seventh in the league and scored more than 100 points over last year’s total at the SEC Championships. Like several other programs on campus right now, you can see the bright future ahead in the pool for the Tigers.

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247sports.com

 

Rematch and road trip to Kentucky await Auburn basketball team

Mark Murphy

6–7 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama–The Auburn Tigers are preparing for the next to last week of their regular season with a Wednesday home contest against one of two basketball teams in the league with an overall losing record before traveling to Kentucky on Saturday to face the preseason pick to win the SEC championship.

Auburn, the defending league champ, has lost four of its five games in the month of February to drop into a tie for fifth place in the league with Vanderbilt. With Saturday night’s win over the Tigers the Commodores own the seeding tie-breaker vs. AU for the SEC Tournament if both teams finish the 18-game league schedule with the same record.

Coach Bruce Pearl’s team takes an 18-9 overall record into an 8 p.m. CST rematch vs. Ole Miss, an opponent Auburn defeated 82-73 on January 10th at Oxford. The Rebels have a 2-12 league mark and are 10-17 overall after letting in-state rival Mississippi State escape Oxford on Saturday with an overtime victory.

If the Tigers knock off the Rebels it will be a fourth consecutive victory in the series vs. Ole Miss, which would be the longest streak for Auburn vs.the Rebels  since winning four in a row from February 2002 through January 2004.

Auburn will be trying to bounce back from a 67-65 road loss vs. Vanderbilt. The Tigers lost that game despite strong nights from Johni Broome, who posted a second consecutive 20-point game, as he hit 8-15 field goals while adding six rebounds. Jaylin Williams scored 17 points while hitting 8-12 field goals to go with five rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot.

Auburn will tip off at 3 p.m. on Saturday in Lexington against a Kentucky team that is tied for third in the league with Tennessee after sweeping the season series from the Vols with a 66-54 home victory to improve to 9-5 in the SEC standings.

Auburn's game at Kentucky will be televised by CBS. When the network decided to televise the matchup it was with the hope that it could factor into determining the league champion, but Alabama with one league loss is four games ahead of third place Kentucky and Tennessee. Texas A&M, which is a game behind the Tide with two league losses,  is three games ahead of the Wildcats and Vols.

Following Saturday's loss Auburn dropped three spots to No. 30 in the NCAA Net rankings, one of the tools the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee uses to fill out its bracket for the 68-team tournament. With the win at Lexington on Saturday, Kentucky has moved to No. 35 in the net.

While there would not be any significant NCAA Net boost for a win over Ole Miss, in the final week of the regular season the Tigers will play Alabama, which is currently No. 2 in the net, and Tennessee, which is No. 3. Houston is on top of the net rankings.

The Tigers will be hoping for a bounce-back performance from Wendell Green, who did a great job distributing and handling the ball last week in a home win vs. Missouri, but struggled on the road at Vandy. In Auburn’s win at Ole Miss the 5-11, 175 junior scored 23 points while dishing out seven assists and pulling in five rebounds. In 33 minutes of playing time he turned the ball over only twice.

After that game Pearl called Green “one of the  best point guards in the country.”

Green didn’t fit that description in Nashville on Saturday night. In 30 minutes of playing time he scored five points despite taking 14 shots from the field. He made just two of those and was 0-3 from three-point range and 1-2 at the free throw with a miss late in the game when the Tigers had an excellent chance to win. On the plus side at Vanderbilt, Green pulled in a team-high eight rebounds and made a team-best three steals, but finished with one assist and two turnovers. In the Missouri game he dished out nine assists without a single turnover.

Also in the win at Ole Miss the free throw line was Auburn’s friend as the Tigers hit 18-22 while the home team was 16-18 on the foul line. Against Vanderbilt the Tigers hurt their cause by making just 5-10 free throws and sending the Commodores to the foul line 26 times, enabling the home team to have an advantage of 15 points from free throws.

Coach Bruce Pearl and Wendell Green assess the situation during Auburn's 82-73 win at Ole Miss. (Photo: Petre Thomas, USA TODAY Sports)

In addition to Green, Broome came through with a productive performance at Ole Miss. The 6-10, 235 sophomore contributed 19 points and 11 rebounds to help the Tigers overcome 24 points from Matthew Murrell. Four Auburn players scored in double figures with Allen Flanigan finishing with 15 and Jaylin Williams adding 12.

The Tigers also helped their cause in game one vs. the Rebels by outscoring the home team 46-26 for points in the paint and finishing plus 10 in rebounding margin.

Auburn heads into its final four regular season games ranked sixth in scoring among the league’s 14 teams at 72.5 points per outing. Auburn is giving up 64.8 points per game, which is the third best average in the league.

SEC Standings

Alabama 13-1, 23-4

Texas A&M 12-2, 20-7

Tennessee 9-5, 20-7

Kentucky 9-5, 18-9

Auburn 8-6, 18-9

Vanderbilt 8-6, 15-12

Missouri 7-7, 19-8

Arkansas 7-7, 18-9

Florida 7-7, 14-13

Mississippi State 6-8, 18-9

Georgia 6-8, 16-11

South Carolina 3-11, 10-17

Ole Miss 2-12, 10-17

LSU 1-13, 12-15

SEC Schedule (All Times CST)

Tuesday Games

* Tennessee at Texas A&M 6 p.m. ESPN

* Mississippi State at Missouri 6 p.m. SEC Network

* Georgia at Arkansas 8 p.m. SEC Network

Wednesday

* Vanderbilt at LSU 6 p.m. SEC Network

* Kentucky at Florida 6 p.m. ESPN

* Alabama at South Carolina 8 p.m. ESPN2

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* Ole Miss at Auburn 8 p.m. SEC Network

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