1/6/23 Auburn Articles

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the middle of this article has some basketball stuff i find very alarming about our play this year. it is in the middle of this post and takes up the majority of it as well.

 

 

Auburn football, basketball & gymnastics Tiger Tidbits

Mark Murphy

8–11 minutes

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Starting with football:

* With the Tigers still needing help at a variety of positions in putting together the 2023 roster the coaches have through Sunday to get players on campus for the second round of visitors from the transfer portal. The prospects are checking out the new football headquarters, which is still getting the finishing touches added to the $90+ million project.

One of the recent additions is a large sign over the front entrance that reads Woltosz Football Performance Center in honor of the major donors for the facility, Walt and Ginger Woltosz. Walt Woltosz earned bachelor’s (1969) and master’s (1977) degrees in aerospace engineering from Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

Early in his aerospace career, Walt Woltosz pioneered the development of innovative simulation and modeling software for key space and military systems. In 1996, the Air Force veteran and his wife founded Simulations Plus, Inc., applying similar technologies in healthcare to create software used by more than 200 pharmaceutical firms, including the world’s top 25, helping to analyze new products and saving millions of dollars in research and development costs.

* On the subject of Woltosz Football Performance Center, Auburn’s athletic department is thanking the major donors to the project with a dinner event on Friday night at the facility. I was told that approximately 100 Auburn families made substantial gifts to the project.

* Former Tiger Daniel Carlson’s sixth season in the NFL has been his most prolific for field goals of 50 yards or longer. He has hit 10-12 and for the season and has made 32-35 for the Las Vegas Raiders going into the season finale on Saturday vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. As a pro he has made 23-28 field goals from 50 yards or longer and is on track to finish above 90 percent on his overall field goals made for a third consecutive season.

Carlson has the Auburn record for carer field goal percentage making 92-114 for 80.7 percent. As a pro he is making 88.1 percent of his field goals.

In men’s basketball:

*With Coach Bruce Pearl saying that he was disappointed with his team’s play at the guard spots following the loss to Georgia, here is a statistical comparison of how the returning guards are currently performing compared to two games into SEC play last season.

Wendell Green:

–Scoring down from 12.7 to 12.3 points per game

–Field goal shooting down from 40.8 to 36.8 percent

–Three-point shooting down from 36.1 percent to 26.3 percent

–Rebounding down from 4.1 to 3.7 per game

–Assists down from 4.6 to 3.5 per game

–Turnovers increased from 2.3 per game at this time last season to 3.2

–Minutes played per game 24.9 this season compared to 25.4 through 14 games in 2021-22

K.D. Johnson:

–Scoring down from 12.1 to 9.2 points per game

–Field goal shooting down from 39.1 to 35.0 percent per game

–Three-point shooting down from 31.1 percent to 28.6 percent

–Rebounding down from 2.4 to 1.8 per game

–Assists up to 1.6 from 1.3 per game

–Turnovers up to 1.8 per game from 1.7 at this time last season

–Minutes played per game 21.4 this season compared to 25.2 at this time last year

Wendell Green is in his second season playing for the Tigers.   (Photo: Jason Caldwell, 247Sports)

Zep Jasper:

–Scoring up to 3.4 from 3.1 points per game

–Field goal shooting up to 35.3 from 34.7 percent last season

–Three-point shooting down from 57.1 to 28.1 percent

–Rebounding down from 1.1 to 0.9 per game

–Assists down to 0.5 from 3.0 per game

–Turnovers have improved to 0.2 per game from 1.2 last season

–Minutes played per game at 18.3 this season compared to 24.6 last season

* A player who has improved his numbers from last season is junior forward Chris Moore. His scoring average is up from 3.1 points per game at this time last season to 6.7. His field goal shooting is up from 45.5 to 54.2 percent. Last season through 14 games he was 0-5 on threes and has hit 8-16 (50.0 percent) this season. His rebounds are up from 2.2 to 2.8 per contest. Moore’s playing time is up from 11.6 minutes per game to 18.4.

* As a team here is a comparison of Pearl’s 2021-22 Tigers and 2022-23 squad in several key statistical categories going into Saturday night’s home game vs. Arkansas compared to what it was through 14 games last season:

–Field goal shooting is down to 43.4 percent from 44.9 percent

–Three-point shooting is down to 28.9 percent from 34.9 percent

–Free throw shooting is down to 66.9 percent from 71.3 percent, but free throws made per game is up to 14.3 from 13.3

–Rebounding margin is up to 5.7 per game from 3.4 per game last season

–Auburn’s field goal defense was better at this time last season when the Tigers allowed opponents to make 38.1 percent of their shots. It is currently at 39.3 percent

–Auburn’s three-point defense has improved with the opposition making 27.0 percent of those attempts compared to 31.8 percent in 2021-22

–Threes made per game is down to 6.1 from 9.1 last season

–Assists are down to 14.3 per game from 15.4 last season

–Turnovers per game have increased to 13.9 from 11.8 at this time last season

–Turnovers forced have dropped to 14.1 from 16.9 at this time last season

–Points per game is at 72.1 this season, down from 80.3 last season

–Points allowed per game is at 62.8 per game, an improvement from 64.3 through 14 games in 2021-22

In women’s basketball:

*After facing unbeaten, defending national champion and No. 1 ranked South Carolina on the road Thursday night the Tigers will play Alabama at 4 p.m. CST on Sunday in Neville Arena for the team’s annual Alumni Weekend game.

Aicha Coulibaly is back from her knee injury and is averaging 16.9 points per game, which ranks fifth in the league. She is still working on getting back to 100 percent physically and the same is true with the team’s second-leading scorer, Honesty Scott-Grayson (15.8?points per game), who has missed the previous two games due to injuries to her ribs and ankle. She is questionable for tonight’s game, but she made the trip to Columbia. There is a good chance she will be available for Sunday’s game vs. Alabama.

In gymnastics:

*On the subject of injuries to ribs, returning All-American gymnast Sophia Groth cracked one of her ribs in the intrasquad exhibition during warmups for the bars event. However, she is expected to compete on Saturday night in Las Vegas in the season-opening Super 16 event at Orleans Arena. The competition will be televised on the Big Ten Network at 8 p.m. CST.

Auburn, which finished fourth at the 2022 NCAA Championships, is ranked fifth in the coaches preseason poll. The Tigers will face defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Oklahoma along with No. 4 Michigan and No. 10 UCLA. Coach Jeff Graba notes that interest in his sport continues to grow and it is a nice honor for the program to be invited to the Super 16 event. While it would be a good thing for his Tigers to do well in Las Vegas the coach notes the important thing is to be a team that steadily improves and is performing well in the postseason in the spring

19COMMENTS

* Graba said that with sophomore Suni Lee planning to compete in the USA trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics that she will be doing skills in college meets that will be part of her training for international competition, which she will resume after the 2023 collegiate season ends. The Auburn coach noted that he and Suni’s coach (his twin brother, Jess) are working together to give the defending Olympic champion the best plan for being ready to win more medals in 2024.

A perfect score is 10.0 in an event that features skills that college  judges can award a perfect 10 based on difficulty. Graba said that Lee will be doing skills worthy of an 11.0 score with a perfect performance.

">247Sports

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No. 22 Auburn hosts Council and No. 13 Arkansas

~2 minutes

Arkansas Razorbacks (12-2, 1-1 SEC) at Auburn Tigers (11-3, 1-1 SEC)

Auburn, Alabama; Saturday, 8:30 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: No. 13 Arkansas faces the No. 22 Auburn Tigers after Ricky Council IV scored 25 points in Arkansas' 74-68 win against the Missouri Tigers.

The Tigers have gone 8-0 in home games. Auburn is 9-3 against opponents over .500.

The Razorbacks have gone 1-1 against SEC opponents. Arkansas has a 0-2 record in games decided by less than 4 points.

Follow every game: Latest NCAA Men's College Basketball Scores and Schedules

The Tigers and Razorbacks match up Saturday for the first time in SEC play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Wendell Green Jr. is averaging 12.3 points and 3.5 assists for the Tigers. Johni Broome is averaging 12.1 points over the last 10 games for Auburn.

Anthony Black is averaging 11.7 points, 3.8 assists and 1.7 steals for the Razorbacks. Council is averaging 18.4 points and 3.3 rebounds while shooting 48.1% over the past 10 games for Arkansas.

LAST 10 GAMES: Tigers: 7-3, averaging 71.1 points, 33.9 rebounds, 13.9 assists, 7.3 steals and 5.6 blocks per game while shooting 44.3% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.7 points per game.

Razorbacks: 8-2, averaging 78.3 points, 32.9 rebounds, 13.0 assists, 9.5 steals and 5.2 blocks per game while shooting 48.2% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.5 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.

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