Bruce Pearl returned from the Christmas holiday break to preview his team’s first SEC matchup of the season. The home Tigers will take on Louisiana State University on Wednesday in Auburn Arena in their first SEC game of the season.
Auburn’s last matchup with the Bayou Bengals was last season in Baton Rouge, where Pearl’s squad fell in an unforgiving 104-80 loss. LSU leads the series between the two schools, but Auburn has won six of the last 10.
“Last year, went down to LSU and we were on pace to give up about 120, 125 points and managed to hold them to about 100 points,” Pearl said. “It was our worst loss of the year.”
Pearl has spoken frequently about his team’s issues with offensive rebounding, which will be an essential improvement when facing LSU’s efficient defense.
“The other thing they do is, almost unlike any other team in the country, they switch everything, so they’re man-to-man, but they switch everything, so it’s like a zone,” Pearl said. “It’s very effective, especially when you have big, long guards.”
This Auburn team certainly has scoring potential, but strong defensive teams have lately shown the Tigers being susceptible to giving up steals. LSU will certainly take advantage and work to generate turnovers to shift the momentum from the home crowd.
“They’re really good in transition and they’re even better, like most teams, they turn you over and they’re getting easy offense off their turnovers,” Pearl said. “It’s not a dead ball situation. It’s a live ball turnover and it creates offense down at the other end.”
Auburn’s 11 and now 12-man depth has been a contribution to its win percentage and certainly gives an edge over teams without a deep bench. LSU’s offense may not have that depth, but head coach Will Wade has not abandoned offense in favor of defense.
“They’ve got eight dudes, really good players. [Darius] Days is capable of beating you all by himself,” Pearl said. “That’s going to be Jabari Smith’s matchup.”
LSU is currently scoring 79.6 points per game, holding its opponents to a scant 54.1. Its offensive scoring is certainly high enough, padded by 13.8 turnovers and 12.8 steals per game, which will certainly hold off an opponent.
The plan for a pair of home SEC-openers fell through when the women's team was forced to postpone its game with Kentucky after positive tests and contact tracing within the program.
Protocols for positive tests may be reevaluated as asymptomatic and vaccinated athletes are testing positive across the nation.
“I do know that they’re working on the protocols and trying not to penalize the vaccinated or the kids that are doing everything they possibly can,” Pearl said. “I hate to see someone penalized with a forfeit just because they couldn’t necessarily play. We’ll work our way through it.”
The Christmas holiday involved a three-day break where teams were not allowed to practice. Athletes were allowed to work on their own, but coaches cannot be present, which provided an opportunity for Allen Flanigan to work on his recovery for his second game back after injury.
“It was good to get a little bit of a break, but with the SEC right around the corner, we’re in preparation,” Pearl said. “He worked out on his own a little bit on his own and had a good practice last night.”
Poll results came out the morning of Pearl’s Zoom call. Auburn came in at No. 11 for the Associated Press, but No. 10 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, which Pearl has said he places the most weight on.
The top-15 matchup tips off at 6:00p.m. CST on ESPN2, from Auburn Arena.
“It’ll be as good as it gets, all year long,” Pearl said to close out the call.
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Callie Stanford is from Springville, Alabama and is currently a sophomore at Auburn. She has been with The Plainsman since January 2021.
Twitter: @Stanford1Callie
