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A spirit that is not afraid

Tigers look to start out strong in SEC play

Auburn played its last game a little under a week ago before the Christmas break where it beat the Washington Huskies in a blowout win 84-61 in Alaska Airlines Arena. That win was attributed to a second-half surge which saw Auburn score 53 points, shooting 74% from the field and 55% from behind the arc. Johni Broome and Jaylin Williams were the leaders of the pack scoring 18 each. 

Auburn is currently ranked No. 20 in the AP poll, as well as No. 16 in KenPom and No. 28 in the Net Rankings with one Quad one win coming against Northwestern, who’s currently ranked No. 45 in KenPom. 

With non-conference play out of the way, the Tigers will start their conference play against the Florida Gators, who are a top-50 Kenpom team although they lost their last game to the Oklahoma Sooners 62-53. The Gators are not off to as great of a start as they would like as they are 7-5 heading into SEC play. The majority of their losses were to unranked opponents, except for highly-ranked UConn who beat them handily by 21. 

Their leading scorer is returning senior and Preseason All-SEC forward Colin Castleton, who is averaging 15.8 points per game along with 7.6 rebounds per game. The fifth-year senior earned second team All-SEC honors a year ago.

The Gators are averaging just shy of 77 points per game, while shooting 45.4% from the field and 35.6% from three-point range. They allow 67.2 points per game, whereas Auburn scores on average 73.7 points per game. 

For the Tigers to come out of Neville Arena with a win, they need to rely on their depth at the guard position, especially on offense as starting point guard Wendell Green Jr. has dealt with an ankle injury the last couple games. They also need solid post defense to stop a player like Castleton in the paint. Broome and Dylan Cardwell will also need to limit Caselton on the boards. 

The Tigers had their best three-point shooting game against a top-caliber opponent last week, shooting 47% in their game against the Washington Huskies. They look to replicate a performance like that but need to improve on their free-throw shooting where they shot 63% from the charity stripe.  

The Tigers hope to stay away from turning over the ball a lot as they have the previous few games. It was a problem in the USC game where they gave up the ball 23 times but improved in the last game where they only gave it up 15 times. Auburn's 14.1 turnovers per game is the third-highest mark in the SEC.

Auburn hopes to kick off the SEC regular season with a win and improve upon its overall record. Florida, on the other hand, seeks its first signature win to get back into the mix of keeping their postseason aspirations alive. The game will tip-off at 6:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday at Neville Arena and will be broadcast on ESPN 2. 


William Halliday | Sports Writer

William Halliday started with The Plainsman in fall 2022. He is a journalism major from Memphis, Tennessee.

Twitter: @wphalliday3


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