5 takeaways from Auburn’s win over Tennessee
No. 1: Bryce Brown steps up his game
The Tigers have certainly dealt with their share of injuries this season, but the performance by Brown on Saturday gives Auburn fans hope they can still succeed despite their depleted rotation. The freshman had his best game of the year scoring 20 points, including hitting five of nine three-point attempts. He is now averaging over 10 points a game on the year and is shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc.
With Auburn trailing at halftime, Brown was the one who led them back to start the second half as he quickly put up 11 points in a 3 minute span that put the Tigers back on top. With T.J. Dunans and Tahj Shamsid-Deen both out, everyone knew Brown would have to step up, and he did just that against Tennessee.
No. 2: The corn row factor
Tyler Harris changed up his look a little bit for the start of conference play and went with corn rows. I’m not going to judge another man’s appearance, but we’ll just say he looked different. However, what really matters for Auburn fans is how well he plays with those corn rows, and the result was a good one.
Harris finished the game with a double-double after putting up 19 points and 13 rebounds. Now Harris was playing pretty good without the corn rows as he is averaging 14.4 points and 8.8 rebounds a game on the year, but he certainly took his game to another level with the new look on Saturday.
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No. 3: Team excels when inspired
Clearly this team was playing with a little extra juice in this one for Bruce Pearl against his old team. They were also coming off two lackluster performances after they started the Diamond Head Classic with an inspiring win over New Mexico.
This team has shown over the season that they can play with a high intensity level when they want to, Pearl just has to find out how to get them to play with that same enthusiasm every time out on the court.
No. 4: Free throw shooting remains a problem
Free throw shooting continues to be a problem for the Auburn Tigers and it almost cost them against Tennessee. They did a good job getting to the free throw line 27 times, but they only converted on 15 attempts.
This time it wasn’t just Cinmeon Bowers fault as he was 3-6 from the line, Harris struggled as well hitting just seven of 12 attempts. They are shooting just 63 percent from the charity stripe on the season, while their opponents are hitting 70 percent of their free throw attempts. It didn’t hurt them in this game as Tennessee couldn’t buy a three, but Auburn almost let them back in the game when they couldn’t seal it at the free throw line down the stretch.
No. 5: Auburn continues to struggle on the boards
Auburn’s other biggest weakness showed in this game too as Tennessee outrebounded them 48-37. Where it really hurt was on defense where Tennessee racked up 23 offensive rebounds, giving them several second chance opportunities. Luckily for Auburn the Volunteers couldn’t hit anything in the first half.
In comparison, the Tigers had 8 offensive rebounds in the game. On the season Auburn is getting outrebounded by their opponents on average 39-37 a game. The weirdest thing is, Auburn has two guys – Harris and Bowers – who both average almost 10 rebounds a game. Someone outside of those two needs to help out on the boards.