Pearl wants aggressive Okeke

[aubiefifty 16,777]

Bruce Pearl wants a more aggressive, assertive Chuma Okeke this season

Updated Oct 26, 1:50 PM; Posted 8:00 AM

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

tgreen@al.com

Bruce Pearl looked around at his team and posed a question this preseason.

“Who here thinks Chuma (Okeke) should be a little bit more aggressive?”

Each of Auburn’s players raised their hands, acknowledging the need for the sophomore forward to assert himself more on the court this season. Pearl then presented the team with another question: Who is willing to take a step back so that Okeke can have that opportunity?

“Crickets,” Pearl recalled Thursday.

After a few moments, a couple players stepped up and accepted that task, recognizing what Okeke brings to the table and the former four-star prospect’s budding potential for Auburn.

“He’s very athletic,” Pearl said. “He’s got great instincts. He’s one of our smartest players. He is able to put himself in the right place at the right time, because he knows the game. He can guard multiple positions…. Chuma picks his spots, but his progression will really go a long way toward what kind of team we’re going to have this year.”

So that’s the challenge facing the 6-foot-8, 230-pound forward who appeared in all 34 games off the bench as a true freshman last season but will be trust into the role of Auburn’s starting power forward when the nation’s 11th-ranked team opens its schedule Nov. 6 against South Alabama.

Okeke averaged 7.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game while playing 21.6 minutes per contest off the bench and leading the Tigers in minutes off the bench. He showed flashes of his potential and wide-ranging skillset throughout the year, including a 15-point, eight-rebound effort early in the year against Dayton, his first-career double-double against Cornell (10 points, 10 boards), as well as nearly three straight double-doubles late in the year against South Carolina (11 points, nine rebounds), Alabama (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Florida (12 points, 10 rebounds).

The versatile forward shot 50.1 percent from the field and 39.1 percent from beyond the arc, with a true shooting percentage of 56.1 percent. Okeke was fifth on the team in total points produced (265) and had the second-lowest turnover rate (10.6 percent) among rotation players despite having a usage rate of 16.2 percent — more than only Horace Spencer and Davion Mitchell among last year’s rotation.

“He is a big bear,” Pearl said Jan. 27 after Okeke had 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting against LSU. “I am not calling him a teddy bear, because he is tough. He is tough enough. He has a lot to his game. He has a lot to his ability. You give [strength and conditioning coach Damon Davis] an offseason with Chuma, you are going to see a grizzly bear. You don’t see a grizzly bear right now; you might just see a little brown bear.”

After that offseason in Auburn’s strength program, however, Pearl has seen a noticeable difference in Okeke this preseason, noting Thursday the progress the sophomore has made with his body, while Okeke said everything has slowed down for him. With that growth comes growing expectations from Pearl, who wants to see Okeke display that grizzly-like aggression on the court this season.

“I feel like he wants me to be more of a playmaker and just to be more aggressive overall, not to be as passive, but just to be more aggressive,” Okeke said.

Okeke has worked on his perimeter shot this offseason and feels “really confident” in it entering the year, which bodes well for an Auburn team that is expected to hoist its fair share of 3-pointers — especially early in the year with a shortened rotation and Austin Wiley recovering from a sprained left foot. The challenge for Okeke, however, is his unselfishness. As Pearl explained this week, one of the reasons Okeke isn’t always as aggressive is because he’s often on the court with more veteran players who are aggressive themselves, like guards Bryce Brown and Jared Harper, among others.

Okeke believes that his newfound assertiveness on the court will go a long way toward benefiting the four other players in the lineup alongside him.

“I feel like when I start to assert myself on the court, that will just open up the court more,” Okeke said. “That will give other teammates opportunities to do more, for real. Like Bryce and Jared, they're very aggressive, and they open up the court a lot, because the defense has to focus so much on them. I just feel like I could open the court up even more, too.”

Maybe then, Pearl will finally see that grizzly bear unleashed.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[gravejd 3,270]

This is the guy that could potentially push AU to be a sweet 16 and beyond kind of team. Make us not miss losing Heron quite as much. We’ll see if he s ready for that type of role but he could be our 20-10 kind of guy. I agree with Pearl on looking forward to a more aggressive okeke 

[Gene Loblaw 636]

7 hours ago, gravejd said:

This is the guy that could potentially push AU to be a sweet 16 and beyond kind of team. Make us not miss losing Heron quite as much. We’ll see if he s ready for that type of role but he could be our 20-10 kind of guy. I agree with Pearl on looking forward to a more aggressive okeke 

This ain’t the nba. Nobody gonna average 20 and 10. But yeah, he’s the most talented guy on the team

[AuburnNTexas 7,142]

Okeke is the closest we have to a superstar player and we need him to step up and assert himself.  That said I think the most important player on this team is Mac. Not because he is most talented because he isn't but because of what he does that makes others better. We saw how this team dropped when he got hurt. Mac was first and foremost a shot blocker who didn't get in foul trouble, he played tough down low defense despite being undersized.  He got back quickly on D allowing the team to run, He hit the occasional three bringing the other teams big outside opening up lanes for our guards and forwards, he rebounded and got the ball out fast to Harper. 

While this team shoots a lot of threes it is the easy basket after a steal or rebound that really defines this team. Mac allows us to gamble on D and get the steal he allows the guards to sneak out on other teams shots as he gets the board and gets the ball out quickly. If Mac is able to play like he did before his injury we are a dangerous team if he is not able to play to same level it will really impact this team. Wiley will help and gives us options that Mac doesn't but we need the healthy Mac back to reach our goals this year.