Although it seems like the college basketball season just started, Bruce Pearl’s Tigers have just two games remaining before jumping into their SEC schedule soon after Christmas.
On the verge of breaking into the Top 10 in the previous week’s AP poll, the Tigers took a large step backwards with their performance level when suffering their first loss of the season last Saturday night vs. Memphis. That game showed Pearl and his coaching staff a variety of chinks in the team’s armor that need repair before league play begins with Florida visiting Neville Arena on Dec. 28th.
The way the 2022-23 roster is set up the Tigers need to be the stronger team near the basket, both offensively and defensively whenever they take the court, but they didn’t play that way vs. Memphis.
While this year’s group probably isn’t going to develop into a really good shooting team, more consistency with that part of the team’s performance, especially from three-point range and at the free throw line, is needed.
The Tigers will make a rare West Coast road trip to end their pre-conference schedule with a Sunday contest at Southern Cal before heading north to Seattle to play the Washington Huskies on Tuesday night. Both should be challenging, but games the Tigers can win if they can learn from their mistakes in the Memphis game and play better moving forward.
Johnnie Harris came into her second season as Auburn women’s basketball coach with higher expectations, especially for the offense, and so far her Tigers have delivered. During the team’s 7-2 start the shooting has improved compared to last season.
Coach J’s initial Auburn team was not very good shooting the basketball. The 2021-22 Tigers made just 38.7 percent of their field goals. They made 3.9 three-pointers per game while connecting on 28.5 percent of those attempts.
This season the overall shooting accuracy is up to 43.2 percent. The Tigers are making 5.9 three-pointers per game and are connecting on 36.6 percent of those attempts.
The Tigers finished last season at minus 2.6 per game in rebounding margin. So far this season that average has improved to plus 4.2 per contest.
Auburn’s defensive numbers are trending in a positive direction as well. Last year opponents made 41.2 percent of their field goals and 31.8 percent of their threes vs. the Tigers. Through nine games the 2022-23 team is allowing opponents to make 36.2 percent of their field goals and 28.6 percent of their threes.
Last season the Tigers managed to win just 10 games. This season’s team has a chance to earn its 10th victory before SEC play begins on Dec. 29th at Ole Miss, another sign the program is moving in a positive direction.
Mark Murphy is the editor of Inside the Auburn Tigers magazine and newsletter.
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