The highly anticipated basketball season in the new Auburn Arena will start Friday, Nov. 12 when the Tigers take on the UNC Asheville Bulldogs at 8 p.m.
Expectations are certainly rising for this season with the opening of the Auburn Arena, which is "up there with the best of them," according to Josh Wallace, Auburn's sophomore walk-on 5-foot-10 point guard.
Wallace led the team in assists, with nine in a 79-66 win against West Alabama in an exhibition game Nov. 3.
Maybe the biggest question for the season is how well coach Tony Barbee will do in his first season at Auburn.
"He's a great coach, great coach," Wallace said. "He's fiery, he has a sense of humor, but he won't hesitate to get on you. I like him a whole lot."
There have been many new faces in Auburn athletics the past few years.
Last year, the Chizik era began for Auburn's football program.
Now it is Barbee's turn to start his legacy with the Auburn family.
Barbee started his coaching career as an assistant at the University of Massachusetts and Memphis.
Barbee later became head coach at the University of Texas at El Paso, finishing his career there with a record of 82-52.
After finishing 15-17 last season, the Tigers were left with a very young team.
Eleven out of the 17 players on Auburn's roster are either freshmen or sophomores.
Doug Merrell, the 6-foot-9 forward, is the lone senior on the team this season.
When asked about strengths of our team, Wallace said, "Our strength would have to be speed, just pushing the ball nonstop, relentless, in-your-face defense."
Wallace said size would be a weakness for the team because "we're not the biggest team out there."
After getting 25 minutes of playing time against West Alabama, Wallace promises to be a factor in the opener when Auburn hosts an eager Asheville team Friday.
After finishing with a 15-16 record last year, Asheville returns all five starters from last year.
The Bulldogs routed the Belmont Abbey Crusaders 94-70 Monday.
The Bulldogs' leading scorer, guard Matt Dickey, put 30 points up against the Crusaders.
Auburn had a different outcome after its exhibition game Monday night against Columbus State University.
The Tigers trailed by 12 points, but rallied back to within two, only to miss three attempts at the tying shot to lose in the final seconds 52-54.
At times, the Columbus State fans made it feel like a Cougars home game, and their team played like it.
"We're a team that's got to play harder than our opponent all year long, just to survive," Barbee said. "We can't let a team play harder than us in our own building."
The Tigers also struggled at the free-throw line, going seven for 20.
"It's the little things that make the difference," Barbee said. "When your margin of error is not that high, you'd better do those little things."
Arguably the biggest games of the season are Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Florida State and a road game to Kentucky.
"We're very excited," Wallace said. "We wanna bring it in the right way."
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