One of the highlights of the first full week of basketball practice was an offensive-heavy scrimmage. Bruce Pearl didn’t know how to feel about it exactly.
OPELIKA — As the adage goes, it’s difficult for a head coach to be completely satisfied following a scrimmage.
Usually, while one thing excels, another suffers. Furthermore, it can be difficult to gauge your true level of excitement when you’re competing against yourself.
Bruce Pearl experienced this on Saturday during Auburn basketball’s intrasquad scrimmage, which was their first since the team’s official start of practice last week. The offensive percentages were promising. The Tigers made 55% of their field goals overall and 50% of their 3-pointers. Johni Broome nearly added another with nine points, but only seven players scored in double figures. Additionally, their assist-to-turnover ratio was 19 to 11.
Prior to the commencement of his yearly Bruce, Barkley, and Basketball Golf Classic at Grand National, Pearl stated, “That’s the good news.” The unfortunate thing is that we did it against ourselves, so we were unable to protect anyone.
“I’m not sure if I should be happy that the offense scored or angry that we didn’t show enough athleticism and speed on defense to cause us and ourselves any trouble.”
Apart from that facet of the scrimmage, Pearl says he is happy with the current state of his redesigned Tigers this early in the preseason.
“Camp has started well, but we still have work to do to get ready for the season,” Pearl stated.
Now that October has arrived, Auburn’s first exhibition versus AUM is formally less than a month away. Less than a week later, the Tigers will make the trip to South Dakota to play Baylor in their regular-season opener.
Auburn’s second practice week began on Monday afternoon as it returned to the Neville Arena floor. The team will practice again on Tuesday afternoon before taking Wednesday off.
Check out this week’s edition of The Stretch 4 for more on what we’ve learned about the Tigers from their first few practice days, as well as commentary from Pearl at his charity golf event with the always-popular Charles Barkley.
There is no doubt that the Tigers need more defensive playmakers.
It’s no secret that Auburn has to improve its offense this offseason. In terms of effective field goal percentage, the Tigers were ranked No. 225 in the country, No. 309 in 3-point shooting, and No. 118 in terms of total points scored per game.
The high-scoring transfer guard Denver Jones and the five-star point guard Aden Holloway, who were added in the winter, have given Pearl and the coaching staff greater hope that the Tigers can shoot the ball much better in the upcoming campaign.
Zep Jasper and Allen Flanigan, maybe Auburn’s two best on-ball defenders, were yet gone. Furthermore, Wendell Green Jr. was a strong point guard defender in spite of his small stature, and the newcomers haven’t yet experienced playing SEC basketball at the highest level.
Pearl complimented Jones for dedicating himself to improving his defense because he was such an offensive player at FIU when he was questioned on the defense on Monday. In addition, he praised veteran reserve Chris Moore for his persistent work on the defensive end of the court and former Division II standout Chaney Johnson for his “strong, natural” and “intense” defensive abilities.
However, Pearl stated, “I’d say we need more—we definitely need more—defensive playmakers.”
The main concern for Auburn basketball this season will be defense. The offensive improvements have been particularly noticeable thus far, but aside from the frontcourt combination of Broome and Jaylin Williams and the mayhem that forces turnovers when K.D. Johnson comes off the bench, they are mainly untested on the other side of the court.
And it’s clear that Pearl is thinking about that a lot.
Regarding Holloway and Tre Donaldson’s competition for the point guard position, Pearl acknowledged both players’ offensive potential but stated, “They have to improve on the defensive end and show me who can get stops, who can keep their man in front, who can make plays defensively, and who improves the playmaking of the other four guys.”
Broome “needs to continue to affect the game at both ends and give multiple efforts on the defensive end,” something Pearl also wants to see more of from him. Following an impressive SEC rookie campaign and an amazing summer spent in the NBA Draft process, Broome is being pushed to “play faster and quicker.”
However, past performance indicates Auburn’s defense will be solid. According to KenPom, Pearl’s teams have all finished in the top 40 nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency during the previous six seasons. In terms of effective field goal percentage, Auburn’s last two defenses ranked in the top 15 nationally.
The scrimmage on Saturday showed that this new-look group could just require more time.
