Round 2 of Tigers-Gamecocks

aubiefifty · March 15

aubiefifty · March 15

aubiefifty · March 15

aubiefifty · March 15

I am not Selling anything i thought you guys might want to know the line,etc..........

aubiefifty · March 15

al.com

Why No. 12 Auburn is approaching ‘step-up time’ with a chip on its shoulder

Published: Mar. 14, 2024, 10:48 a.m.

5–6 minutes

Auburn senior guard KD Johnson admits he wasn’t tuned into ESPN’s College Gameday when it was said, but word travels fast in the Tigers’ locker room, so it didn’t take long for word to get back to him.

“We kinda heard some things this morning about us that we kinda didn’t like,” Johnson said on the evening of March 9, minutes after he and the Tigers topped the Georgia Bulldogs 92-78 in the team’s regular season finale.

Johnson was referring to ESPN’s Jay Williams and Andraya Carter both calling the Tigers “overvalued” during a segment on College Gameday that morning. Williams and Carter isolated Auburn’s guard play as the reason for their takes.

To be fair, Auburn is young and inexperienced at the point guard spot as freshman Aden Holloway and sophomore Trey Donaldson have both gone through runs as the Tigers’ starting point guard this season.

“We have the youngest point guards in college basketball Power Five, with the exception of maybe Kentucky,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Kentucky would have two freshmen, and we’ve got a freshman and a sophomore. You just don’t see it anymore, because of how old teams have gotten and are getting with transfers and everything like that.”

However, all season long, the Holloway-Donaldson tandem has proven age and experience can mean very little.

With Holloway and Donaldson acting as Auburn’s floor generals this season, the Tigers’ finished the regular season with the highest assist rate and lowest turnover rate of any Auburn team under Pearl.

“I think that both Tre and Aden have taken great care of the ball,” Pearl said. “They’ve understood our offenses, they play within their limitations, they’re unselfish. But they both are threats to score. They’ve just done a really good job taking care of the ball and valuing possessions.”

All that said, Pearl wasn’t up in arms at Saturday’s comments made by the folks with College Gameday, who he says “have been phenomenal to us” having visited The Plains the last four years in a row.

“Look, they’ve gotta pick somebody,” Pearl said. “But, you know, for whatever reason — maybe they don’t think we have much rise left. Maybe they think we’ve overachieved and so therefore, they felt we were a little overrated and that we weren’t going to be a team that would make much noise.”

Pearl has often reminded that the Tigers were picked to finish sixth in the SEC during the preseason.

Instead, Auburn finished the regular season ranked fourth in the league and was in the SEC title race until the very end.

“I thought this team could be good. I thought this team would be good with a chance to be very good. And I did think that picked sixth is about where I would’ve picked us, sixth or seventh,” Pearl said. “So they’ve exceeded my expectations a little bit. Instead this was a team that was very good with a chance to be great.”

But as evident by the opinions of Williams and Carter, not everyone is buying that.

Fortunately for Auburn, them buying in isn’t a requirement.

“You always get overlooked and doubted,” said Auburn junior center Johni Broome.

“But when you have a team like us that plays unselfish and do the things that we do on the court — the games we win and the times we do lose, how it looks, and you’ve still got people saying we’re the most overrated team out of 70 teams? It’s kinda like, ‘OK, so?’”

To Broome’s point, the Tigers rank eighth nationally in scoring margin with an average of +14.9.

“It’s time to go on a little run,” Broome said. “And I think we’re capable of it — especially in our locker room, our guys are feeling it.”

No. 12 Auburn is set to officially open postseason play Friday afternoon at the SEC Tournament in Nashville, where it’ll see the winner of Thursday’s Arkansas-South Carolina matchup at approximately 2:30 p.m.

“It’s step-up time,” Pearl said of opening the postseason. “You step up, you stay. You don’t, you go home.”

And in the case of the Tigers, who are entering postseason play with a bit of added motivation, Pearl doesn’t expect that to be much of an issue.

“I think we do,” Pearl said when asked if his team plays better with a chip on its shoulder. “Yeah, you definitely use that to motivate the players as to what they’re thinking.”

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aubiefifty · March 15

si.com

A transfer heating up will be the x-factor for Auburn to make a Final Four run

Andrew Stefaniak

~2 minutes

It's postseason time for the Auburn Tigers, which means the players are getting ready to try and make a Final Four run.

Guard play wins in March, and when you have players like Johni Broome and Jaylin Williams locking down the frontcourt, you need a few guards to step up in the backcourt.

One player who could step up is Denver Jones. Against the Georgia Bulldogs on Senior Night, Jones had 21 points while going 7-9 from deep. If Jones can start doing this more often and make shots from deep, it could carry Auburn to a Final Four. Aden Holloway and Tre Donaldson are capable of making three's as is KD Johnson but the most consistent shooter on the year has been Jones. If he can give you 15 points a game in the tournament on top of what you have in Broome and Williams, the Auburn Tigers become a very difficult out.

Bruce Pearl had this to say about Denver Jones after the Tigers win over the Georgia Bulldogs to finish regular season play, "The thing I love about Denver (Jones) is he's locked in defensively," Pearl said. "He's locked into the scouting reports, he's locked into his work ethic."

Chad Baker-Mazara has also been shooting the ball well from three, so if he and Jones can start to make it rain from deep, this team can do something special.

In March, someone needs to step up, and based on the way he played against Georgia, Jones could be that player for Bruce Pearl's squad.

aubiefifty · March 15

theplainsman.com

Could Denver Jones be Auburn’s key to success in March?

6–7 minutes

The SEC Tournament begins on Friday for Auburn, and luckily for the Tigers, one of their guards is heating up right as postseason play starts.

That player who’s been on a tear lately would be starting shooting guard Denver Jones.

Jones, who is currently enjoying his first season at Auburn, has hit double-digit scoring in 8 of Auburn’s last 11 games. This 11-game stretch was capped with a season-high 21 points in the regular-season finale against Georgia that included Jones hitting seven 3-pointers.

Jones’ 3-point tally against the Bulldogs made him just the 10th player since Bruce Pearl took over in 2014 to hit seven or more 3-pointers in a single game.

Not only is Jones hitting a lot of 3-pointers, but he’s also shooting at an extremely efficient clip. Over the last 11 games, Jones has hit 23 of his 45 3-point attempts, good for a 51.1% 3-point field goal percentage.

Over the season, Jones owns Auburn’s second-highest 3-point percentage at 41.7%, only behind Chad Baker-Mazara who is shooting 42.9% from deep.

The New Market, Alabama, native started this run by dropping 19 points during the Tigers’ home contest against Vanderbilt. Prior to that outburst against the Commodores, Jones was on a seven-game skid without hitting double-digit scoring while shooting just 32.4% from the field and 33% from deep.

Going into the SEC and NCAA Tournament where guard play is arguably the most important factor in making a deep postseason run or bowing out early, Jones’ scoring elevation could not come at a better time.

“Honestly, I feel like it’s about the time for everybody to start getting hot,” Jones said. “Right here in March, I feel like that’s about the right time where everybody starts playing with more confidence, starts taking the open shots and starts knocking them down.”

Comparing his recent scoring output to Auburn’s other guards, Jones looks like Auburn’s best scoring option among them and Auburn’s best chance of having high-level guard play in the postseason.

Point guards Aden Holloway and Tre Donaldson have done a fantastic job distributing the basketball, leading Auburn to an eighth-best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country at 1.71, but Jones has been the more reliable scorer among Auburn’s guards.

Over the last 12 games, Holloway has only scored in double-digit figures just once and been held to four points or less in half of those.

Donaldson did not reach double-digit scoring once over the final six games of the regular season, and while shooting guard K.D. Johnson has hit double-digit scoring eight times this season, the senior is shooting just 37.8% from the field and 27.9% from deep.

Donaldson has been a much more efficient shooter with a 47% field-goal percentage and 38.3% 3-point percentage. He’s also scored in double figures nine times this season and has a solid NCAA Tournament game under his resume with an 11-point performance against Iowa in last year’s tournament.

However, the trend over the back half of the SEC schedule points to Auburn relying on Jones to do the guards’ scoring while Holloway and Donaldson dish and Johnson comes in as a high energy, defensive player.

Feeding the basketball to Jones and creating open looks for the shooting guard was a point of emphasis over the last three regular-season games for the Tigers.

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Jones made 15 shots between the Georgia, Missouri and Mississippi State games and 11 of those made shots came off assists, including all seven makes in the Georgia game coming by way of assists.

And more shots might be on the way after Jones took nine shots against Georgia.

“A better coach would have gotten him 14 shots instead of nine, for real. So that’s on me,” said head coach Bruce Pearl.

Not just offense

Not only has Jones picked up his game offensively, but Pearl has also been blown away by his defensive ability.

Jones’ defensive stats don’t jump off the page as he only averages 0.7 steals per game and didn’t make the All-SEC Defensive Team, but he’s constantly pressuring whatever ball handler he’s matched up against and is often tasked with defending the opposing team’s best guard.

Jones’ defensive presence is something that Pearl tends to talk about more than his offensive ability.

“The thing I love about Denver is he’s locked in defensively,” Pearl said. “He’s locked in the scouting reports. He’s locked into his work ethic. He’s being rewarded because he does all the right things almost all the time. You put yourself in position for God to bless you, and whether you get the blessing or not, you put yourself in position. Denver Jones has put himself in this position with the way he trains, the way he works, the way he carries himself. He’s a terrific player.”

With Jones lighting up defenses by knocking down 3-pointers and also handling the task of defending the opposing team’s best guard, Auburn might just have a formula for success to make a deep run in March.

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Jacob Waters | Sports Editor

Jacob Waters is a senior majoring in journalism. From Leeds, Alabama, he started with The Plainsman in August, 2021.

Twitter: @JacobWaters_

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arktiger1975 · March 15

There is no better motivation than doubters and haters!

aubiefifty · March 15

al.com

How Auburn’s Aden Holloway navigates a roller-coaster freshman year

Published: Mar. 15, 2024, 6:50 a.m.

6–7 minutes

COLUMBIA, MO - MARCH 05 - Auburn's Aden Holloway (1) during the game between the #13 Auburn Tigers and the Missouri Tigers at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, MO on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Photo by Zach Bland/Auburn TigersZach Bland/Auburn Tigers

At a slump’s worst — when he’d made just two 3-pointers over his last five games, when every miss was met with a frustrated stare toward the roof as if to ask how this possibly could keep happening — Aden Holloway started coming out on the floor first for pregame warm-ups.

On Feb. 17 before Auburn played Kentucky, Holloway worked on 3-point shooting drills with graduate assistant Bryant Smith. Smith guarded Holloway beyond the 3-point line as many defenses had done against the smooth-shooting freshman. It was an adjustment collegiate defenses made for the former five-star recruit that he hadn’t yet adapted to.

So he practiced. And against Kentucky, he still didn’t make a 3-pointer. He shot 0-3 from deep. Six games now with only two 3s.

But he kept shooting. Head coach Bruce Pearl has said often that he never thought Holloway took bad shots, he just missed them. But he missed them to the point of shooting 25% on 3s in SEC play. Pearl maintained that every time Holloway shot the ball, he thought it was going in. But they didn’t go in.

“I don’t know,” Holloway said before the SEC Tournament thinking back to his struggles. “I don’t know what it was, but I’m glad we’re out of it.”

He closed the year making nine 3-pointers over Auburn’s final 11 games. Five of them came against Georgia — a pause in the skid for the most 3s he’s made in a game this season.

It was a good feeling, Holloway said, to see the ball go in the basket that night. It was a reprieve during his struggles.

Holloway was brought to Auburn because of how well he shot the ball as a high schooler. He was to follow in a line of high-volume 3-point shooting Auburn guards under Pearl. His jump shot was so pure — traced back to teaching himself in a dining room turned basketball court in his mother’s Charlotte home — that he quickly emerged at the beginning of the season with performances off the bench that earned him a spot within the first two weeks of the season in the starting lineup. He made 15 3-pointers in Auburn’s first five games. He attempted more than six 3-pointers per game over Auburn’s first 20 games and made a third of them.

So defenses adjusted to him. They saw Holloway — a smaller guard listed at 6-foot-1, 178 pounds on Auburn’s roster — and dared him to drive to the rim. More than 66% of Holloway’s shots this season were 3-pointers and only 16% were layups, per CBB Analytics. Holloway also made his layups at a far below-average rate.

The defensive game plan against him was working.

But when his shots weren’t falling in SEC play, it was a reminder that he’s just a freshman. That he’s not expected to have all this figured out yet as he tried piloting one of the top 15 offenses in the country on a team that has realistic expectations to make a run in March.

“I’ve never experienced that ever in my basketball career,” Holloway said.

Yet what Holloway has done is something not often seen in a freshman who entered a school with a rating as high as Holloway: he took on a role that didn’t need him to score, that wouldn’t make him the star and just a facilitator of an offense. His scoring would be a bonus.

Holloway leads Auburn in assist-to-turnover ratio. As a freshman. And an even more uncommon answer for a freshman of his status: he’s proud of that.

“I take a lot of pride in it,” Holloway said. “I’ve just been seeing how our team is and how we operate. I really don’t have to do as much scoring.”

Over Auburn’s final 13 games — where it entered the most difficult portion of SEC play and went 8-5 in that stretch — Holloway attempted fewer than four 3-pointers per game. On average, he made 0.8 per game.

Pearl has frequently discussed Holloway improving in other aspects of his game that don’t require him to put the ball in the basket. He knows Holloway can do that, even if he’s done so inconsistently.

Asked what he’s gotten better at and Holloway said his defense and his passing. His understanding of the game. His ability to split time with fellow point guard Tre Donaldson. Well, “all other facets of the game that’s not scoring,” he said.

He said he works on his defense every day, maybe the most maligned part of his game. He said it’s taken him having a different mental approach to play defense focusing on having fun. If he’s having fun, he said, his best basketball comes with it.

But it’s hard to have fun when the thing he’s best at — shooting — isn’t working with him as it has for so much of his basketball life. It was evident to see in his face at times on the court near the end of the season.

His problems weren’t all solved by scoring 15 points at Georgia in late February. But it was more of a reminder of what he can be.

He is playing better defense now. He is still among Auburn’s most productive players despite not scoring like he once was.

He’s a freshman. There’s still a lot to learn. So his pregame drills and routines stay the same. He’s regimented.

And he’s going to keep shooting.

Matt Cohen covers sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

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aubiefifty · March 15