Auburn's added length could reshape defensive identity

[AuburnNTexas 7,246]

https://www.al.com/auburnbasketball/2020/10/auburns-added-length-could-reshape-defensive-identity.html

 

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

Bruce Pearl will coach what he believes will be his youngest team as a Division I head coach this season, but youth isn’t the only thing different about this year’s Auburn team compared to past iterations under Pearl.

This year’s Auburn team will have considerably more length up and down the roster, which could reshape the Tigers' identity this season.

“I would think the length is great if we use it — blocking shots, deflections, active hands,” Pearl said. “Could it help us with pressure? Could it help us try to extend defensively a little bit? Could we turn some people over a little bit more? Might it lead to some zone that we could play as more of our primary defense?”

 

Those are all questions Pearl and his staff will attempt to sort out as it prepares for the start of the 2020-21 season with a new-look team that is replacing its top-six rotation players — Austin Wiley, Anfernee McLemore, Isaac Okoro, Danjel Purifoy, Samir Doughty and J’Von McCormick — from last year’s team. The Tigers have an opportunity to reinvent themselves, to an extent, this season given all the turnover and fresh faces on the roster.

 

Auburn doesn’t return a player who averaged more than 13.7 minutes per game last season (Allen Flanigan), while the leading returning scorer from last year’s team is sophomore Devan Cambridge who averaged 4.2 points per game off the bench. What Auburn lacks in experience this season, though, it makes up for in its newfound length.

 

Outside of five-star freshman point guard Sharife Cooper—listed at 6-foot-1 on the official roster—Auburn will have more length across the court than last year’s team. Auburn has nine players listed at 6-6 or taller, including 6-foot-8 forward Jaylin Williams (who was likened to a “left-handed Chuma Okeke” this week), 6-foot-10 big men JT Thor and Babatunde Akingbola, and 6-foot-11 center Dylan Cardwell (who moves as well as any player that size Pearl has been around). Even freshman Justin Powell, who has been working mostly at point guard but is a natural two-guard, is listed at 6-foot-6, the same height as athletic wings Cambridge and Flanigan.

 

The days of Auburn being somewhat undersized, it seems, are over.

 

 

Not only is there added height up and down the roster, but several of those players have packed on some needed weight in the offseason.

 

“Well, their coaches being overweight rubs off on their players” Pearl joked. “So, I’ve picked up the COVID 20 or 19, and I think some of those guys did as well.”

 

In all seriousness, though, Pearl believes players benefited from some extra time on campus this summer in the weight room, and it seems the Tigers took advantage of that. Akingbola added 9 pounds from last year. Cardwell added between 20-30 pounds from his senior season in high school. Flanigan gained close to 15 pounds, as did Thor. Most notable, Cambridge added 25 pounds and is up to 215 pounds heading into the season.

 

“My goal last year was to gain weight, you know get my weight up,” Cambridge said. “I feel like extremely, like, I was skinny. So, I feel like I’m moving quite — not the same as I was in high school, I feel a lot bouncier and I feel good. I feel like I can handle bigger people, bigger guards. I’m still moving fast laterally, and I think I’m doing pretty good.”

 

Auburn will likely maintain a familiar identity on offense. Pearl likes to push the tempo and shoot a high volume of 3-pointers, and there’s shooting range up and down the roster this season. Defensively, however, is where the additional length could most benefit Auburn this season.

 

As Pearl noted, it gives the Tigers more options, as well as the potential to be more disruptive on that end of the floor after averaging just 13.5 forced turnovers per game last season and ranking in the middle of the pack nationally in opponent turnover rate (18.3 percent) and steal rate (8.7 percent). The Tigers could also build upon their solid shot-blocking numbers from last season, when they ranked 22nd nationally in both blocked shots per game (4.9) and blocked-shot percentage (8.2 percent) — but it’s going to take time, buy-in and effort.

 

“If a guy is 6-9 or 6-8 and really long, and he closes out with his hands down, he becomes 6-foot pretty fast,” Pearl said. “So, again, playing with those hands up and out away from our body is something that we’ve been drilling and hope to use as a strength.”

 

That’s something Auburn is focusing on during the preseason. As is often the case with younger players, their offense is ahead of their defense, and with considerable youth on the roster, it’s no surprise that defense is something Pearl and his staff are working overtime to hammer home.

 

It takes time to understand and digest the complexities of defensive schemes at the college level, especially when compared to high school. It’s intricate and demanding, especially if you’re also working in a matchup zone defense — as Pearl seems intent on doing more of this year.

 

“There’s a place that you’re supposed to be at all times,” Pearl said. “That’s a really hard adjustment for young players to learn. We’re drilling it, we’re teaching it, we’re watching it on film, we’re practicing it. But, obviously, it’s a great challenge. There’s just a tremendous learning curve of what we’re supposed to do on the ball, what we’re supposed to do off the ball, and how to react to all the different actions.”

 

But if Auburn can overcome that learning curve and some expected growing pains, the Tigers have the potential to use their length to their advantage this season on the defensive end — which will only make things simpler on offense.

 

“This year I think we’ve got to zone in on the defensive end with us being so long,” Cambridge said. “We could be really good at, like, a zone. Like with our long hands, deflecting passes and being in the passing lane, I think it’ll help tremendously and getting easy steals. Playing fast, being in transition it’ll be very exciting to see what happens.”

 

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

 

 

[gravejd 3,282]

Man am I excited to see how this team comes together. Its probably going to be frustrating to watch at times with such a young and inexperienced team, but its also going to be fascinating to see how Pearl fits all these pieces together. I think defense is going to have to be the calling card for our team this season if we hope to have any success. I'm excited about what Coop and Powell bring to the table but its hard to imagine 2 freshmen being able to come in a properly guide an offense. I think it will be a lot like Harpers first year where we see the potential of what those players will become but we'll also see some games where they look pretty outmatched by some of the older and more talented guards in the SEC. I don't recall us playing much zone ever since Pearl has been here and I certainly don't ever recall us playing good zone defense for any extended amount of time. So Pearl is going to have to earn his paycheck this season if he is going to pull off coaching zone defense to this young team. 

What i do hope we see a lot more of is our full court pressure defense. That will also be tough to pull off since we'll have to be good about not fouling too much, but if our guys can really buy into that constant pressure defense it could be a huge asset to this team and really help when our offense lags. I think it was Harpers sophmore season where we used to wear teams down with our full court pressure and then Harper always pushing the offense. That team sputtered out hard when Mac went down but prior to losing him that was a great defensive team. With our size and numbers we should be able to run guys in and out of the game often. Really PG is the only position where i would say we are light from a numbers perspective and so many of our guys can slide to different positions. 

Coop - PG

Powel - PG, SG, SF

Turbo - SG, (emergency PG)

Johnson - SG, (emergency PG)

Cambridge - SG, SF, PF

Flanigan - SG, SF, PF

Moore - SF, PF

Franklin - PF

Thor - SF, PF, C

Jaylin - SF, PF, C

Stretch - C

Caldwell - C

Some of those might be a stretch like Cambridge and Flanigan playing the power forward position and that would not be their ideal position to be sure. But they can play that position if the situation called for it and that gives Pearl a lot of different things he can do. I think the key for this team (other than Coop being amazing) is going to be Jaylin Williams and Thor. I think those are the 2 guys that can really give the other team some matchup issues. If they can play the swiss army knife role that Chuma and Okoro played so well then this team could be something special by seasons end. 

 

[Tiger 8,841]

This team is going to hit some speed bumps along the way but man I am excited! One of the most rewarding moments for me personally as an AU fan was watching Harper, Brown, Horace, Mac, Danjel, Wiley (and I'll throw Mustapha Heron in there too because he was a hooper) blossom from young freshman trying to figure it out and going through all the growing pains to turning Auburn into a place that elite prospects are regularly considering coming to. And a Final Four! Still just unbelievable to this day.

My excitement is not geared at what I think this team can accomplish this season, it's more about looking forward to seeing this current group of young players' career's start off -- even our returning players don't have much experience -- and I'm pumped to see how their development transpires from game to game and year to year. I think we can all agree as Phase II of the Bruce era officially begins there has been a SIGNIFICANT increase of talent (and overall size and length!) top to bottom in the program making the next step very exciting.

I think we see our new floor as a program this year, but it's going to be fun. I think we hover around the bubble for most of the season and it'll be interesting to see how a young team handles pressure down the stretch and the inevitable adversity that comes along the way. Also we need to avoid any and all injuries to anyone able to play PG this season.

I think we springboard this season into something special next year. I have my own assumptions about who I think will leave and who will stay but nobody knows for sure so I'll save it lol. 

[toddc 13,196]

On 11/3/2020 at 11:38 AM, gravejd said:

Man am I excited to see how this team comes together. Its probably going to be frustrating to watch at times with such a young and inexperienced team, but its also going to be fascinating to see how Pearl fits all these pieces together. I think defense is going to have to be the calling card for our team this season if we hope to have any success. I'm excited about what Coop and Powell bring to the table but its hard to imagine 2 freshmen being able to come in a properly guide an offense. I think it will be a lot like Harpers first year where we see the potential of what those players will become but we'll also see some games where they look pretty outmatched by some of the older and more talented guards in the SEC. I don't recall us playing much zone ever since Pearl has been here and I certainly don't ever recall us playing good zone defense for any extended amount of time. So Pearl is going to have to earn his paycheck this season if he is going to pull off coaching zone defense to this young team. 

What i do hope we see a lot more of is our full court pressure defense. That will also be tough to pull off since we'll have to be good about not fouling too much, but if our guys can really buy into that constant pressure defense it could be a huge asset to this team and really help when our offense lags. I think it was Harpers sophmore season where we used to wear teams down with our full court pressure and then Harper always pushing the offense. That team sputtered out hard when Mac went down but prior to losing him that was a great defensive team. With our size and numbers we should be able to run guys in and out of the game often. Really PG is the only position where i would say we are light from a numbers perspective and so many of our guys can slide to different positions. 

Coop - PG

Powel - PG, SG, SF

Turbo - SG, (emergency PG)

Johnson - SG, (emergency PG)

Cambridge - SG, SF, PF

Flanigan - SG, SF, PF

Moore - SF, PF

Franklin - PF

Thor - SF, PF, C

Jaylin - SF, PF, C

Stretch - C

Caldwell - C

Some of those might be a stretch like Cambridge and Flanigan playing the power forward position and that would not be their ideal position to be sure. But they can play that position if the situation called for it and that gives Pearl a lot of different things he can do. I think the key for this team (other than Coop being amazing) is going to be Jaylin Williams and Thor. I think those are the 2 guys that can really give the other team some matchup issues. If they can play the swiss army knife role that Chuma and Okoro played so well then this team could be something special by seasons end. 

 

Man this post had me up and then down more than a roller coaster at Disney! Good microcosm of the season ahead. 😝 

[cole256 17,085]

This is what I would talk about when people would be quick to say Pearl recruited small guards at tenn. Actually he recruited tall longer guards every chance that he could because length is the great equalizer in basketball

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,854]

The most noticeable quote here to me is that which refers to playing zone. There's alot of times where we didn't run zone until it became absolutely necessary, and it still usually looked fairly bad. Lazy/dumb closeouts were very common, but I never really consider our below average arm length positionally speaking, esp amongst guards

We had quite a few moments where we just got bombed on last season, esp as we got deeper in to SEC play, so it'd be nice to have that counter