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Auburn Basketball: Tigers at Vanderbilt Game Info & Preview

By Nicholas Ian Allen

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The Auburn basketball team finished the non-conference schedule with five consecutive wins. The Tigers begin SEC play Tuesday against Vanderbilt.

Auburn Tigers (8-5) at Vanderbilt Commodores (10-3)

  • Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2014
  • Start Time: 8PM Central
  • Location: Nashville, TN
  • Arena: Memorial Gym
  • TV Info: ESPNU
  • Live Stream: WatchESPN
  • Odds (VegasInsider.com): Vanderbilt (-8)

The 2014-15 Auburn basketball season began with a great deal of optimism under new head coach Bruce Pearl, but the Tigers stumbled through the first half of the non-conference slate as they dealt with injuries and depth issues. Over the past five games, however, the squad has found its stride.

Antoine Mason returned from an ankle injury he suffered in the season opener, and Pearl added 7-foot-2 freshman center Trayvon Reed and 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Alex Thompson returned from a leave of absence. Following a seven-game stretch with only eight scholarship players at his disposal, the additions were a sight for sore eyes.

Dec 3, 2014; Lubbock, TX, USA; Auburn Tigers guard KT Harrell (1) shoots over Texas Tech Red Raiders guard Devaugntah Williams (0) in the second half at United Supermarkets Arena. Texas Tech defeated Auburn 46-44. Mandatory Credit: Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

And they’ve had an immediate impact.

With an 82-61 victory over North Alabama Saturday, the Tigers completed a five-game homestead sweep heading into SEC play. If Auburn can upset Vanderbilt in Nashville, the Tigers will have the program’s first six-game winning streak since the 2008-09 season.

“I do feel like our team is as prepared as it could be heading into January,” Pearl said Monday.

By sheer size alone, Reed changes the game when he is on the floor. Because he wasn’t on campus until mid December, and has to learn Pearl’s system, the true freshman is only playing between ten and 12 minutes per game. Still, he is tied for the team lead with nine blocks – or 1.5 per game in his six appearances this season. That’s 27.3% of Auburn’s blocked shots this season.

With Reed and Thompson now available, Pearl has been able to provide necessary rest for 6-foot-7, 278-pound forward Cinmeon Bowers, who had been required to do almost all the heavy lifting in the post early in the season.

Bowers has eight double-doubles this season, which is the most in the SEC to date and ranks in the top ten nationally. He also leads the league in rebounding (11.3 per game), and both defensive (7.8) and offensive rebounds (3.5), and his 17 rebounds against Milwaukee and Winthrop are the most any SEC player has had in a game this season. Bowers also stands 11th in the league in scoring with 13.7 points per game.

Bowers’ scoring performance is good, but he’s just the third leading scorer on the squad. Senior guard K.T. Harrell ranks second in the SEC with 17.9 points per game (and tied his season high with 25 against UNA) and Mason isn’t far behind with 15.4.

The two are finally clicking with one another thanks to Mason’s return from injury. In fact, the Tigers are 6-0 in games both have started this season.

Looking ahead, tonight’s game against Vanderbilt is a tall task. The Commodores are 10-3 this season and have a talented roster that includes pre-season All-SEC post player Damian Jones and the SEC’s reigning Freshman of the Week Riley LaChance.

“We have to start off well. In non-conference, there were a couple of games where we didn’t start off very well, but every night you are playing a good team, so we have to start out well, especially on the road.”

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Starting off well is two-fold. The Tigers need a quick start in the game itself – instead of falling behind early like they’ve done many times before (UNA being a recent example) – in order to start strong in conference play. Doing so on the road in Memorial Gym won’t make it easy.

“We haven’t won a road game yet,” Harrell said Monday. “We beat Oregon State, but that was at a neutral site. We know that. We are just trying to prepare for Vanderbilt. We know they are a good team. It would be a huge road win for us.”

Jones leads the Commodores with 16.6 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per night and an average of 1.8 blocks per contest. The 6-foot-10, 250-pound sophomore ranks fifth in the SEC in scoring, sixth in boards and fifth in blocks. He’s also the league’s second leading shooter with a .556 field goal percentage.

LaChance leads all SEC freshmen with 13.1 points per game, but has scored 26 points in a game twice this season.

However, despite all their young talent, Vanderbilt is beatable. The Tigers are one of the hottest teams in the SEC, and they have the talent to compete, whether anyone around the league or the country believes it or not.

“Nobody expects us to be good or win in the SEC, and we know that,” Harrell said. “If you focus on trying to prove people wrong, you will lose sleep at the end of the night, and not focusing on the task at hand. We just have to focus on us and continuing to get better.”

Auburn has gotten better. We’ll find out how much tonight in Nashville.

Projected Lineups:

Auburn

#5 Cinmeon Bowers, F, Jr., 6-foot-7, 278 pounds, 13.7 PPG, 11.3 RPG, 28.6 MPG
#25 Jordon Granger, F, Jr., 6-foot-8, 210 pounds, 4.8 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 21.8 MPG
#1 K.T. Harrell, G, Sr., 6-foot-4, 212 pounds, 17.9 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 33.1 MPG
#12 K.C. Ross-Miller, G, So., 6-foot, 178 pounds, 6.7 PPG, 1.9 RPG, 24.2 MPG
#14 Antoine Mason, G, Sr., 6-foot-1, 216 pounds, 15.4 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 30.6 MPG

Vanderbilt

#13 Riley LaChance, G, Fr., 6-foot-2, 194 pounds, 13.1 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 33.0 MPG
#0 Shelton Mitchell, G, Fr., 6-foot-3, 186 pounds, 5.2 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 24.4 MPG
#11 Jeff Roberson, F, Fr., 6-foot-6, 206 pounds, 4.4 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 19.3 MPG
#35 James Siakam, F, Sr., 6-foot-7, 225 pounds, 9.8 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 22.9 MPG
#30 Damian Jones, C, So., 6-foot-10, 250 pounds, 16.6 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 28.1 MPG

Next: Football: The 3 Most Important Recruits of 2015

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