It's been said all year. This Auburn basketball team is small.
When Auburn struggles to crash the boards and nab rebounds, the result is usually an Auburn loss, especially if that game is being played on the road.
"There have been a couple games where we have been bothered by size," said head coach Bruce Pearl. "At Colorado, where we made some of their power forwards, who are good players, look like great players. Certainly, we hung in there in the boards against Alabama, but we did not rebound the ball late. You could say that a couple of offensive rebounds late were major factors in costing us that opportunity."
In what was only Auburn's second home loss, the Tigers were out rebounded by Mississippi State 44-33, and gave up 20 second chance points to the Bulldogs.
After the game, Pearl talked about the impact a lack of rebounding can have on his team.
"Defense and rebounding are things that we can control," Pearl said. "When we defend and rebound, we can beat just about anybody in this league. When we don't defend and rebound, we can't beat anybody in this league. There's not enough talent in there to beat anybody in this league if we don't defend and rebound and play with our identity. We can't beat anybody if we play like that."
Pearl said once an opposing team makes its way to the low post, their chances of scoring greatly increase.
"In the halfcourt, the closer these teams get to the basket the better they look," Pearl said. "If you let a team handle the ball close to the rim, if you let a team get in there easily and don't double them down when they get in their tight, that's what we have had to do."
Pearl's tallest player, freshman center Trayvon Reed, has shown flashes of great play on defense, but Pearl said Reed's progression into a great player will take time.
"Trayvon has not improved as much in games as we would like and as people would expect," Pearl said. "But he has improved a lot as far as his preparation, and as far as his habits, training, work in the weight room, his diet and just his attention to being consistent on a schedule. We are going to have to be patient with Trayvon. Trayvon is going to have to be patient. He didn't come here to average one point and two rebounds. He came here to play a more dominant role. He physically isn't ready for that at 7-foot-2, 225 lbs. as a freshman. He didn't have that same off-season that all of our guys had in the weight room and running stairs. He didn't have that and it shows. I don't know how much more we will see from Trayvon as the season progresses."
Senior guard KT Harrell agreed that he thinks Reed will get better as time goes on.
"He's young, he's inexperienced, but Trayvon's going to be really good," Pearl said. "He's got to get stronger but I think the most important thing for him is just to go out there and play as hard as he can and just leave it all out there."
Another problem Pearl said he has seen begin to take shape on his team is lack of distribution in scoring.
In Auburn's 57-55 loss at Alabama, Cinmeon Bowers, Harrell and Antoine Mason combined for 49 of the Tigers' 55 points, with 13, 22 and 14 respectively.
K.C. Ross-Miller, Malcolm Canada and Tahj Shamsid-Deen each had two points, while Jordon Granger, Alex Thompson and Trayvon Reed all had zero.
"I look at this two ways," Pearl said. "One, you go on the road and you want to make sure your best players are getting the looks, and they certainly did. Antoine, KT and Cinmeon got the majority of the looks and carried the load scoring-wise. The other guys who don't play as dominant of a role in the offense, have consistently played better at home than they have on the road. We play best when everyone is contributing. When everyone isn't contributing and we go on the road we haven't won."
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