3/16/23 Basketball Articles

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yahoo.com

 

Chance Westry working to come back from injury better than ever

Taylor Jones

2–3 minutes

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After a stellar Israel summer tour that saw him score 10.3 points per game, Auburn fans were excited about the potential production that freshman Chance Westry could bring to Auburn’s already talented squad.

However, Westry has not returned to his standard playing shape after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery in October. This has caused him not to see the floor since early January and has limited him to only seeing action in 11 games this season.

After Auburn’s 76-64 loss to Georgia on Jan. 4, head coach Bruce Pearl elected to shut down Westry, which will allow him to redshirt and get a second chance at being a freshman again in 2023-24. In his time away from the action, Westry has been working to prepare for next season.

“It’s been pretty hard, you know, because I’m not out there playing,” Westry said Wednesday at Legacy Arena. “Seeing everything and also being the player that I am, I want to go out there and try to fix some things, but it’s been hard. I’ve been getting stronger every day… and getting ready for next year so I can be out there myself.”

Several changes that Westry has taken on have been adding weight. He weighed 183 pounds in the summer but has now grown to 197 pounds thanks to a plan set forth by Auburn’s strength and conditioning coach, Damon Davis. That is one of the main reasons why Pearl remains confident that Westry can ultimately become the player that he was before the surgery.

“I mean, it means a lot,” Westry said. “(Pearl) believes in me. Obviously, he sees the best, so I’m just going to live up to what he sees and be even better.”

Westry was a four-star combo guard from Chandler, Arizona as a member of the 2022 signing class, joining Yohan Traore and Tre Donaldson. Looking ahead to next season’s roster, Westry will join Wendell Green Jr. and K.D. Johnson as one of four returning guards, with freshman signee Aden Holloway joining the mix.

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

Auburn-Iowa among NCAA Tournament's most intriguing first round games

Taylor Jones

~2 minutes

Auburn basketball snuck into the NCAA Tournament by earning their 20th win of the season on the final day of regular season play, and their reward will be playing in one of the most interesting matchups of the first round.

No. 9 seed Auburn will square off with No. 8 seed Iowa in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday evening at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Playing in the 8-9 game is usually intriguing in itself, but CBS’ David Cobb feels that there is another factor that will draw in viewers.

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Cobb ranked every NCAA Tournament opening-round matchup and has placed Auburn-Iowa at No. 3 on the list, trailing only Arkansas-Illinois and Texas A&M–Penn State as the best matchups in the first round. He says that Auburn’s guards, as well as the coaching matchup, should provide quality entertainment to the college basketball fan.

If you’re into seeing coaches act like children, you’ll love this one. We’ll set the over/under on coach technicals at a cautious 1.5 and won’t be surprised if either Auburn’s Bruce Pearl or Iowa’s Fran McCaffery get tossed for their antics. The Hawkeyes are a fun offensive team led by a potential first-round NBA Draft pick in Kris Murray, and Auburn’s backcourt of Wendell Green and K.D. Johnson is constant chaos.

The chaos of the No. 8 Iowa- No. 9 Auburn matchup will tipoff at 5:45 p.m. CT on Thursday evening on TNT.

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collegefootballnews.com

 

Auburn vs Iowa Prediction, Game Preview, NCAA Tournament First Round

Pete Fiutak

~3 minutes

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Auburn vs Iowa Prediction, Game Preview

Auburn vs Iowa How To Watch

Date: Thursday, March 16
Game Time: 6:50 ET
Venue: Legacy Arena at BJCC, Birmingham, AL
How To Watch: TNT
Record: Auburn (20-12), Iowa (19-13)
- Auburn vs Iowa Expert Picks

Why Auburn Will Win

You know that defense thing the kids are all into? Yeah, Iowa hasn't downloaded the app.

Oh sure, the Hawkeyes can score with just about anyone and can put up points by the bucket load, but guarding is optional.

Auburn might not have the most dangerous attack around, and it's awful from the outside, but it plays an aggressive brand of defense with lots of blocked shots leading the transition points. 

Iowa is totally miserable at guarding the three - Auburn at least has to give it a shot - and it hasn't been all the close to stopping anyone in this 2-4 run coming into the tournament, but ...
- 25 Worst Basketball/Football Schools

Why Iowa Will Win

Points, points, points, points, points.

Auburn's good defensively, it has the ability to grind it out when needed, and it'll force plenty of turnovers, but Iowa can hit a slew of threes and take this over right away.

Iowa can't win on its defense. It has to work it around, keep it moving inside and out, and it has to keep taking chances to get Auburn out of its shell - it's not really play in one offensively, but it would like to be in this - and turn this into a firefight.

 

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The Hawkeyes are 11-0 when making 47% or more of their shots, and Auburn is 2-9 when teams 44% or better from the field.

How many times this year was Iowa held to under 44%? 12, but it's 2-8 when its below 43% and ...

- NCAA Tournament Schedule, Predictions, Game Previews

Auburn vs Iowa What's Going To Happen

Auburn can score, too.

It's not like this is Wisconsin or Virginia on the other side of the Hawkeyes. Auburn makes a bunch of free throws, it'll get a slew of second chance points, and it'll move the ball around well enough to score without too many problems.

Auburn's defense will clamp down when it has to. Iowa's won't. 

This will be a bit more of a higher-scoring game than the Tigers might like, but they'll be fine with it.

Expect fun.

Auburn vs Iowa Prediction, Line

Auburn 78, Iowa 74
Line: Auburn -1, o/u: 152.5
ATS Confidence out of 5: 2
Must See Ranking: 4
- Auburn vs Iowa Expert Picks

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NCAA tourney provides reunion for Iowa assistant, former Auburn GA Matt Gatens

Published: Mar. 15, 2023, 3:57 p.m.

5–7 minutes

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Matt Gatens’ phone buzzed Sunday evening, not long after the CBS selection show revealed his Iowa team drew ninth-seeded Auburn in the opening-round of the NCAA Tournament.

It was a text from his former boss, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl.

“I’ve changed all the play calls, and I’ve changed all my signals, and we’re not running that anymore,” Pearl said, somewhat jokingly.

Read more Auburn basketball: Chance Westry opens up about inner conflict during recovery from knee injury, his future at Auburn

Baker star, Auburn commit Labaron Philon named Alabama Gatorade Player of the Year

Playing the field: Auburn leaning experience against historically tough schedule as it enters March Madness

Pearl didn’t want Gatens, who served as a graduate assistant at Auburn during the 2017-18 season and is now an assistant under Fran McCaffery at Iowa, to get the inside scoop on the teams’ first-round matchup, which is set for 5:50 p.m. CT at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena.

Then came another text from another familiar name from Gatens’ past. It was Mike Burgomaster, Auburn’s recruiting coordinator and assistant to the head coach. This one had less to do with the matchup and more to do with their last shared visit to Birmingham.

Back in 2017, when Gatens and Burgomaster were both GAs on Pearl’s staff, Auburn squared off against Middle Tennessee State at Legacy Arena in a game the Tigers won, 76-70, to get off to their best start since 1999. The night before that game, Auburn’s staffers took an outing to nearby Top Golf. It was one of the memories that immediately came to mind for Burgomaster when the bracket revealed Iowa as Auburn’s opponent in Birmingham, so he fired off the text to Gatens: “Are we going to go to Top Golf the night before the game?”

Burgomaster, like Pearl, was just “kind of joking” about the pre-gameday rendezvous, but the excitement about getting to have a reunion with his former off-the-court colleague was sincere.

RELATED: Bruce Pearl reacts to Charles Barkley picking Alabama to win national title

“Obviously there’s a fine line between being friendly, and obviously we got to do our jobs to prepare our guys to the best of our abilities,” Burgomaster said Wednesday. “So, there hasn’t been too much talk about the actual game, but we’re just trying to find a way to see each other and catch up a little bit while we’re still in the same city.”

For Gatens, the matchup with Auburn is a reminder of the humble beginnings of his coaching career. A former two-time All-Big Ten selection and two-time captain at Iowa, Gatens’ first foray into coaching following a career in the G League and overseas came at Auburn. He joined Pearl’s staff as a graduate assistant during the 2017-18 season, when he assisted with travel, development, scouting, video and running Auburn’s offseason camps.

Gatens had a prior relationship with Pearl before joining the Tigers’ staff. His father Mike Gatens — another former Iowa player under Lute Olson — was one of Pearl’s close friends during the coach’s time as an assistant at Iowa.

“He gave me a lot of insight on coaching from a player’s perspective, so it was really fun to kind of be in the trenches with him and be on the floor with the guys,” Burgomaster said of Gatens.

Gatens’ introduction to coaching was one he looks back on fondly—and it came during what proved to be a breakout season for Auburn under Pearl. While the 2017-18 season got off to an inauspicious start with the FBI scandal that rocked the sport—and ensnared then-Auburn assistant Chuck Person and led to suspensions for players Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy—it was an overall successful season on the Plains. Auburn went 26-8 overall, including a 13-5 mark in the SEC as the program won its first SEC regular-season title since 1999.

Auburn also earned its first NCAA Tournament berth of the Pearl era — and its first since 2003 — that year, drawing a four-seed in the Midwest Region and defeating College of Charleston in the opening round in San Diego.

“I was just a sponge in that first year and trying to learn everything, from helping out with travel to scouting — just everything to do with a program,” Gatens said.

Following his year on the Plains, Gatens took what he learned at Auburn and left for an opportunity at Drake, where he spent four seasons on staff. The first two were as director of operations before being promoted to assistant coach the next two years. During his time at Drake, the program posted four consecutive 20-win seasons and earned an NCAA Tournament bid in 2021.

Then mama called. He was presented with an opportunity to return to his alma mater and work as an assistant coach under another veteran coach in McCaffery. He jumped at the chance and helped guide Iowa to a 19-13 record and eight-seed in this year’s tournament.

Little did he know then that journey that began six years ago would come full circle in Birmingham with Iowa and Auburn meeting in the NCAA Tournament.

“What are the odds that we’re getting matched up in the first round?” Burgomaster said. “Matt’s the best. I’m really happy for him now that he’s back coaching at his alma mater. He has a really bright future ahead of him.”

Now it’s just a question of whether a reunion at Top Golf on Wednesday night will precede the one on the floor of Legacy Arena on Thursday evening.

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

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