With two exhibition wins under its belt, Auburn men’s basketball is set to tip off the 2024-25 season on Wednesday night hosting the Vermont Catamounts – a No. 13 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
“Vermont is very Yale-like, which should concern us all,” Pearl said on Monday afternoon of the Catamounts who will look for a fourth straight American East title this season.
Vermont returns two of its top three scorers from last season's conference title campaign in TJ Long and Shamir Bogues. Bogues averaged 14.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.3 steals and 3.0 assists in the 2023-24 season and had 18 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists against Duke in the NCAA Tournament.
Long, a threat from deep, made 43.2% of his three pointers last season and Vermont was 10-3 when the now senior guard made three or more three-pointers in a game.
“And they got a couple of dead eye shooters, kind of like again, like Yale had. So it'll be a really scrappy team I expect,” Pearl said.
Last season, when the Catamounts made at least 10 three pointers, which happened 15 times, they were 13-2 in those contests. Last night, Vermont hit exactly 10 shots from deep in a 67-62 road win against UAB in Birmingham, AL.
Tahaad Pettiford fends for the ball mid-air during Auburn vs FAU on November 1, 2024.
“We got to continue to do a better job of defending without fouling, being aggressive without fouling, because this group of guys has been together a long time. They work well together, and if you overplay things too much, they'll beat you back door,” Pearl said.
In both the Tigers exhibition matchups, against Furman and FAU, Auburn compiled double-digit steals – 11 and 12 respectively. It marked the first time Pearl’s defense had 10 plus steals in back-to-back games since the Tigers first two matchups of the 2022-23 season.
It’ll be a tall task for Auburn, however, to replicate a similar defensive performance against Vermont who ranked ninth and led its league in turnovers per game with 9.1 during the 2023-24 campaign. The Catamounts recorded nine turnovers or less in 21 of its 34 games last season.
“Playing in these types of environments, playing great non-conference schedules prepares us through the years,” Vermont head coach John Becker said following the win at UAB on Monday night. “Guys who have been in this program, which we have a lot of returners this year, they have experienced this a bunch and found ways to win these games and we did it again tonight.”
The Catamounts made 10-of-12 shots at the charity stripe in the second half to close out the win over UAB, also a team in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Auburn, on the other hand, allowed Furman to take 31 shots from the free throw line and FAU 39.
It’ll take a clean game defensively for the Tigers, against a veteran Vermont squad, in order for it not to be a close game late on Wednesday night.
“One good thing is, this early schedule, including even these first three games, we're going to, you know, learn a lot about where we're at,” Pearl said.
The Tigers will officially tip-off the 2024-25 campaign inside of the friendly confines of Neville Arena against the Catamounts on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. CST. The matchup can be streamed on SEC Network+ or the ESPN app.
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
