2/26/23 Auburn Articles

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flywareagle.com

 

Former Auburn football star gives brutal assessment of basketball team after Kentucky loss

Andrew Hughes

2–3 minutes

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Former Auburn football star Kerryon Johnson had a brutal assessment of the basketball team after the Tigers' 86-54 loss to Kentucky Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

 

Former Auburn football star running back Kerryon Johnson had a brutal assessment of the Auburn basketball team following a soul-crushing 86-54 loss to Kentucky at the Rupp Arena on February 25.

The Tigers lost a critical conference clash, their 10th loss of the season and one that moves them to 9-7 in the SEC, to a Wildcats squad they could’ve been tied in the conference standings with in a thorough Kentucky rout that saw an 11-point halftime deficit turn into a 32-point massacre by game’s end.

The former Auburn football star had specific criticisms of Wendell Green Jr. — who shot 3/12 from the field overall and had as many assists (two) as turnovers — and Johni Broome, while shouting out Jaylin Williams for playing as well as he possibly could:

Johnson believes Auburn basketball needs to commit to an identity that fits its personnel if it has any hopes of salvaging the final two games of the 2022-23 season against Alabama (3/1) and Tennessee (3/4):

Former Auburn football star Kerryon Johnson feels like we all do about Auburn basketball

It’s hard not to feel the same way Johnson does about the 2022-23 Auburn basketball team:

Coming into the season, it was thought that if Chance Westry and Yohan Traore would step into big roles and contribute off the bat, that the Tigers would have a chance at repeating as SEC regular season champions. Westry has been injured, though, and Traore has not been able to consistently crack the rotation. That has resulted in an underwhelming season that now has AU on the bubble with matchups as underdogs left on the docket against Alabama and Tennessee.

What happens next is anyone’s guess but Johnson is right: this has been a frustrating season to be an Auburn Tiger.

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Auburn is kicked out of KenPom top 25 following loss to Kentucky

Taylor Jones

4–5 minutes

Saturday’s game between Auburn and Kentucky had the makings of being a barn burner for the first 15 minutes of game time.

However, when the Wildcats gained control with 5:03 remaining in the first half, they turned on the jets and left Auburn in the dust. Kentucky outscored Auburn 71-50 over the game’s final 25 minutes to win big, 86-54.

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Kentucky built an 11-point halftime lead and led by as many as 40-points before an 8-0 run by Auburn trimmed the lead to 32 points by the game’s end.

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl was less than thrilled with his team’s performance.

“It was just awful on all ends of the court,” Pearl said Saturday following his team’s loss to Kentucky. “We got beat in every facet of the game. We weren’t competitive. We were obviously ready to play because we played well early but from the last four minutes of the first half all the way through the second half, a very, very poor performance–a very, very poor effort. I apologize to our fans for such a letdown.”

As a result, Auburn’s place in the latest KenPom rankings has suffered drastically. With two games remaining in the regular season, Auburn will need to play incredibly well in order to boost their chances for a comfortable NCAA seeding. The road will not be easy as their final two opponents, Alabama and Tennessee closed Saturday as top-five teams in the KenPom.

Here’s how Saturday’s loss affects Auburn in the latest KenPom ranking update:

Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

The 32-point loss did a number to Auburn’s overall KenPom ranking as they fell eight spots from last Wednesday’s update following the win over Ole Miss.

Houston, UCLA, Alabama, Tennessee, and UConn round out the top five following Saturday’s action. That spells bad news for Auburn, as the Tigers face two of the KenPom’s top five teams in the final week of the regular season.

Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

Auburn suffered another noticable drop, this time in adjusted offensive efficiency. Auburn checks in at No. 77 entering Sunday, which is a ten-spot drop from Wednesday. According to KenPom, Auburn is projected to score 111.0 points per 100 possessions.

Gonzaga is the best team in this category by scoring a projected 123.4 points per 100 possessions.

Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

The Tigers suffer a small drop in adjusted defensive efficiency from No. 15 to No. 19. Despite the dip, Auburn remains in the top 25 by allowing their opponents to score a projected 94.5 points per 100 possessions.

Auburn’s regular-season finale foe, Tennessee, is the nation’s best team. KenPom forecasts the Volunteers to allow a total of 86.7 poins per 100 possessions.

Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

Auburn gained a couple of spots in the adjusted tempo category by creating an estimated 68 possessions per game. In Saturday’s game at Kentucky, Auburn had 65 offensive possessions, but only scored on 24 of them.

St. John’s and Alabama have the most offensive possessions per game according to KenPom, as they are projected to have 73.5 possessions per game.

Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports

Kentucky’s strong win over Auburn actually benefits the Tigers. Auburn now holds the No. 33 toughest schedule in the nation according to KenPom, which is a nine-place increase from Wednesday’s game against Ole Miss.

Kansas holds on to the nation’s toughest schedule.

The Tuscaloosa News

Alabama improved to 25-4, 15-1 in SEC play after defeating Arkansas, 86-83. Here’s a look how their win over the Razorbacks affects their KenPom rankings

Overall: No. 3

Offensive efficiency: No. 17

Defensive efficiency: No. 5

Tempo: No. 2

Strength of Schedule: No. 8

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5 takeaways from Auburn's 86-54 loss at Kentucky

Nathan King

8–10 minutes

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Auburn knew it would take a special effort for the program to snap a 19-game losing streak in Rupp Arena and win its first road game against Kentucky in 35 years.

By the end of the afternoon, though, the Tigers would have probably settled for simply a competitive performance in what ended up being a complete nightmare of a game.

In its worst margin of defeat this season by a landslide, Auburn was thoroughly dominated in all areas by Kentucky, 86-54 on Saturday in Lexington.

"I apologize to our fans for such a letdown," Bruce Pearl said postgame.

Here are Auburn Undercover’s five takeaways, as the Tigers are now in desperate need of a bounce-back in their final two games after being eviscerated for its worst margin of defeat in a game since 2016.

Key stretch

Eight straight points by Jaylin Williams gave Auburn a 25-24 lead with 5:24 remaining in the first half. Auburn had yet to be burned by Kentucky’s torrid shooting start to the game, thanks to forced turnovers and offensive rebounding.

When those began to falter, though, and the Tigers missed more shots, the Wildcats took full advantage and ended up with a double-digit lead at the break.

Kentucky started 8-of-12 from the floor and didn’t cool down much the rest of the half, especially beyond the arc. The Wildcats were selective but efficient with their attempts from 3-point range, making 5-of-6 shots from beyond the arc in the first half.

Back-to-back triples by Jacob Toppin and Cason Wallace sparked a 16-4 run by Kentucky to end the first half. Auburn missed eight of its final nine attempts from the floor heading into halftime.

"We were obviously ready to play because we played well early," Pearl said. "But from the last four minutes of the first half all the way through the second half, very, very poor performance and very, very poor effort."

The Wildcats tried to put the game away out of the locker room, scoring 7 of the first 9 points in the second half, including 5 quick second-chance points on three offensive rebounds in less than two minutes. Auburn trailed 47-31 at the first media timeout of the second half, and things only got worse thanks to Kentucky’s rebounding, 3-point shooting and defense.

Auburn shot 33 percent from the floor in the second half and was outscored 46-25.

"We weren't helping each other out, and that's the key to being able to play in a hostile environment: trusting each other and relying on each other and both ends of the floor," Pearl said. "And we didn't."

Battle of the bigs favors Kentucky

Arguably the top two big men in the league went at it early, combining for 13 of the game’s first 15 points and 17 of the first 23. Johni Broome was playing well defensively, forcing two shot-clock violations against Oscar Tshiebwe in the first five minutes. Broome had 9 points and a block at the game’s first media timeout.

But Tshiebwe, the reigning national player of the year, continued to muscle his way through Auburn’s frontline, and began doing so with more success as the game progressed. Tshiebwe notched a double-double in the first half alone, with 14 points and 10 boards.

Broome’s impact began to fade over the course of the first half, and really the rest of the game because of his foul issues.

The Morehead State transfer was tagged with his fourth foul with 13:12 left in the game. After 9 points in the first 3:19 of the action, Broome didn’t score another point until nearly 31 minutes of game time later, when he hit a couple free throws following a flagrant foul on Tshiebwe. Broome finished with 12 points on 4-of-10 shooting and only one rebound.

Pearl clearly wanted to juggle Broome’s usage on and off the floor to keep him fresh and out of foul trouble in a big-time matchup against Tshiebwe, but that plan was hindered quickly. Backup center Dylan Cardwell hurt those efforts in a big way, too, by picking up three fouls in his first six minutes on the court.

Tshiebwe finished with 22 points and 17 rebounds to highlight another concerning performance for the Tigers on the glass. Despite securing the game’s first six offensive rebounds — a major factor in the Tigers hanging around for the majority of the first half — Auburn was utterly worked on the boards to the tune of 41-23.

Pearl’s team has now been outrebounded 74-46 over its past two games. He declared after the Ole Miss win Wednesday that Auburn would "get beat by 40" if it duplicated its rebounding performance in the next game against Kentucky. He was certainly prophetic in that regard.

"We just got dominated on the boards," Pearl said. "We got 13 defensive rebounds. And they got 12 offensive rebounds. The numbers are incredible. Tshiebwe and Toppin (13 points and 12 rebounds) physically had their way with us."

Auburn’s floor general shackled early

Auburn’s two best players are Broome and point guard Wendell Green Jr. It’s been difficult for the Tigers to win when one of them plays poorly — or at least has trouble getting their offensive rolling consistently.

Saturday, Auburn dealt with an off game for both. Green Jr. started 2-of-9 from the floor and was also limited by his own foul issues. His third personal of the game came 17 seconds into the second half, and he took an elbow to the face in the process.

The junior finished with 9 points but made just 3-of-12 shots. In Auburn’s two biggest margins of defeat this season — a 12-point loss at Georgia in early January and a 32-point loss in Rupp Arena on Saturday — Green Jr. has combined to shoot 5-of-24.

Green Jr. and Broome weren't helped much, though, as Pearl's plea for more contributions from his bench continues to fall on deaf ears. The Tigers finished with 13 bench points thanks to an 8-0 run in the final two minutes, when all the starters were out of the game, but a bench player didn't score for Auburn until a 3-pointer by K.D. Johnson with 14:36 left in the game.

"We got as Wendell goes — and obviously," Pearl said. "Wendell struggled. But obviously, he did not have a lot of help."

Standout stat

Kentucky entered the game 12-0 on the season in games where it shoots better than 35 percent from beyond the arc.

It was clear in the very early stages of Saturday’s blowout that Auburn was going to have a difficult time keeping the Wildcats from that mark.

Kentucky started 5-of-6 from deep and finished 8-of-13, marking Auburn’s worst 3-point defensive performance, percentage-wise, of the season by a significant margin (62 percent).

"They've got great players at every position," Pearl said. "They are pros at every position, and so whether they have an advantage on the inside offensively, or if they have advantages at the guard spots, they're just, in a lot of ways really, superior." 

The Wildcats made just three triples in the second half, but both were in the first few minutes, as the game entered into cruise-control territory for the home team.

Auburn, meanwhile, went 7-of-21 from deep. Williams, who had 13 points to lead Auburn in scoring, made two in the first half and shot 3-for-7 from beyond the arc. All other Tigers were 4-for-14.

Auburn had only four assists in the game.

Blowout loss 'really hurts' Auburn's tournament resume

Up to this point, one of the primary draws of Auburn's NCAA Tournament resume was that the Tigers didn't have any ugly losses — with a 12-point defeat in a road conference game (Georgia) serving as the worst.

Kentucky was a Quad 1 game for Auburn, but a 32-point margin is never going to sit well in terms of the Tigers' ratings, as they continue to fight for a tournament bid down the stretch of the regular season. 

"It was a complete domination on both ends of the floor, and it really hurts our NCAA hopes because of the margin," Pearl said.

There's no telling how the field of 68 will shake out in the final week of the regular season, and the Tigers could still be a First Four team even with two more losses. But a win against either Alabama or Tennessee would be colossal and would certainly calm some nerves about Auburn potentially missing out on the big dance this year. And Pearl acknowledges that.

"We've got to regroup," Pearl said. "We've got to go to Alabama, and we've got Tennessee at home, and we've got to win one of them, at least."

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Takeaways from Auburn basketball’s blowout loss at Kentucky

Jeremy Robuck

3–4 minutes

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The Auburn Tigers took on the Kentucky Wildcats Saturday afternoon. The Tigers traded blows with Kentucky throughout much of the first half. Unfortunately, Kentucky had an amazing shooting day and realized capitalized on their homecourt advantage. The Wildcats really ran away with it in the 2nd half. Here are a few takeaways from todays game.

Shooting Percentages

In the first half, Auburn really hung in there until Kentucky went on an 8-0 run with around the 4 minute mark. Auburn played well early, but finished the half down 11. The main reason for this seemed to be shooting percentages. Kentucky shot the ball insanely well. They were 5-6 from three. They also shot 56% from the field. Conversely, Auburn was 3-11 from three, shooting only 34%. Shooting is not the Tigers strength, and they tend to have less offensive consistency on the road. Auburn will need to get hot from behind the arc if they are to make a run in the postseason.

Auburn lacks a go to guy this year

The Tigers went to Jabari Smith in crunch time last year when they needed a bucket. Auburn doesn’t have many players who can create their own shot this year. Wendell Green Jr. is about their only desperation scorer, and he was off today. Green started at just 3-12 for 9 points. Auburn may look to the transfer portal and incoming 5 star freshman Aden Holloway for help in the scoring department next year.

Rebounding has been an issue

The Tigers were out-rebounded today at a nearly 2 to 1 margin. This has been a problem for Auburn lately that needs to be fixed. Rebounding comes down to discipline and effort. Kentucky played incredibly well today. Shots were falling and their home crowd was a factor, but there’s never an excuse to rebound poorly.

Black Eye on College Sports

We would be remiss if we did not discuss the moral ineptitude of the University of Alabama and all of their supporters. The Crimson Tide have found a new low and become a black eye on not just college basketball, but all of college sports. The playing of team members involved in a capital murder investigation has shown that Bama, from the top down, lacks integrity, lacks compassion for others, and just plain lacks self awareness. Everyone has that one person in their life that doesn’t seem to be aware of others existence. That person, for other fanbases, is Alabama. Their lack of compassion for the murder victim and her family is baffling. The situation is confusing but most of all sad. Jamea Jonae Harris’ family deserves better. College basketball deserves better. The world deserves better.

 

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kentucky.com

 

Everything Auburn men’s basketball head coach Bruce Pearl said after a blowout loss at Kentucky

Cameron Drummond

6–8 minutes

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READ MORE

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Game day: Kentucky 86, Auburn 54

Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Auburn in Rupp Arena.

 

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Saturday was a tough day at the office for Bruce Pearl and his Auburn men’s basketball team.

Pearl’s morbid pregame prediction that Auburn would lose by 40 if the Tigers didn’t rebound the ball well against Kentucky nearly came true: UK led by as many as 40 points late in the second half in a 86-54 blowout win over the Tigers.

Kentucky also outrebounded Auburn 41-23 in the game.

Auburn has now lost 20 straight games at Kentucky, a streak that dates back to 1988.

Afterward, Pearl met with the media inside Rupp Arena.

Here’s what he said:

Opening statement: So when I was at Southern Indiana coaching the Screaming Eagles for nine years, the two or three teams that mattered the most, on our schedule, were Kentucky Wesleyan in Owensboro, Northern Kentucky, just there in Covington, just across the bridge from Cincinnati, Bellarmine in Louisville. Because we took great pride in our basketball in Indiana and you all take great pride in your basketball in Kentucky.

I’ve come in here before and gotten smacked like that. And it’s embarrassing because you know good basketball and you know really bad basketball. You know, we were ready to play. You could tell early, we had a good game plan. And then with about three or four minutes left to go in the first half, things just unraveled a little bit. And then our guys just didn’t, we just didn’t stay together. You can’t have one assist in the first half and you’ve got to, offensively, try to work together to make each other better and we just didn’t.

And of course the same thing happened on the defensive end as well. So Auburn was not competitive at all tonight.

Q. Question about how Kentucky has changed from earlier in the season to now.

Yeah, well I mean they’re obviously really comfortable in their roles. Cason Wallace is a difference maker, you know, running point and, you know, his ability to defend and playmake and, you know, finish shots. You know, the Reeves kid is a great you know, obviously a great great shooter. Older player gives them...

And those guys need to be able to be aggressive to be able to make some mistakes and when you’re playing 35 minutes and you know they don’t have quite the depth. Guys are really comfortable in the roles. Tshiebwe’s playing dominant on the inside. We thought we could score on him a little bit and hurt him a little bit in the ball screen. But he did a nice job there and they just, him, Toppin, are physically just imposing out there and then the wings are so... Literally bigger and stronger at every position. And their physicality, we were no match for.

So yeah, they’re playing really well together.

Q. Question about how Auburn fell apart in the second half.

Haven’t seen it yet. But we saw it tonight. And so you know, nobody likes to come apart like that. This team’s kind of scrapped and clawed and, you know, we’ve been in every game on the road in tough places. And tonight, things came apart. If I had an explanation for why it wouldn’t have happened.

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl yells to his players during Saturday’s game against Kentucky at Rupp Arena. Silas Walker swalker@herald-leader.com

Q. Question about Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves scoring 18 points in the second half.

You know, I think that for the first, again, 15 minutes I thought we played pretty well defensively and transition hurt us throughout the last four minutes and then the entire second half. I thought one of the keys was their guards being able to get down hill. Their guards were able to get downhill on us and drive past our guards.

We couldn’t stay in front of them. And I thought it was a difference. Which then led to drive, draw, dish and led to inside out. Can’t keep in front. Can’t guard them.

Q. Question about how physicality and rebounding played a part in the game’s outcome.

Huge. It was huge. I was off by eight points. I hate when I’m right. But the physicality, they were much, much more physical than we were and played that way at both ends of the floor. You know, Tshiebwe’s the most physical player in the game. And you know, Toppin is big, strong bouncy physical. Their wings are big. Livingston’s toughening up a little bit and doesn’t play like a young player. Again, Reeves really helps them. Wallace is, I don’t know many freshman that are built like that. Great player. Great size. Great tempo. So physically it was a mismatch.

Q. Question about Johni Broome starting strong for Auburn, then not producing as much later in the game.

Well, I think when you only have one assist in the first half, it’s really hard to score many more buckets. You’ve got to get your big involved and we did not do a very good job getting him the ball like we did earlier in the game. Went away from it.

This story was originally published February 25, 2023, 8:02 PM.

[Mikey 16,781]

2 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

Black Eye on College Sports

We would be remiss if we did not discuss the moral ineptitude of the University of Alabama and all of their supporters. The Crimson Tide have found a new low and become a black eye on not just college basketball, but all of college sports. The playing of team members involved in a capital murder investigation has shown that Bama, from the top down, lacks integrity, lacks compassion for others, and just plain lacks self awareness. Everyone has that one person in their life that doesn’t seem to be aware of others existence. That person, for other fanbases, is Alabama. Their lack of compassion for the murder victim and her family is baffling. The situation is confusing but most of all sad. Jamea Jonae Harris’ family deserves better. College basketball deserves better. The world deserves better.

I don't think it's baffling at all. This is simply bammer being bammer. They need Miller to win their games so murder case be dammed, Miller is going to play. I'd expect nothing different from Tuskaloser.

PS: If you, I or Joe Blow was called and asked to bring a gun to a scene, we bring the gun and murder is committed with that gun, we're locked up and charged with at least accessory to murder. But since the guy that brought the gun is necessary for bammer to win basketball games, the Tuskaloser Police Chief says "There is nothing to charge him with". Total BS.