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Auburn Basketball Faces Oklahoma State in Big 12/SEC Challenge

By Jacob Varner

Jan 27, 2016; Oxford, MS, USA; Auburn Tigers guard Kareem Canty (1) brings the ball up court during the second half against the Mississippi Rebels at The Pavilion at Ole Miss. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 27, 2016; Oxford, MS, USA; Auburn Tigers guard Kareem Canty (1) brings the ball up court during the second half against the Mississippi Rebels at The Pavilion at Ole Miss. Mandatory Credit: Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports /
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After yet another disappointing road trip, Auburn basketball (9-10, 3-4) returns home to face Oklahoma State (10-10, 2-6) as a part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. Auburn and Oklahoma State will be the final game of the challenge and Auburn Arena should be rocking.

Auburn basketball has dropped below .500 once again this season, so a win – or a few wins in a row – would really help the Tigers at this point in the season. Unfortunately, there won’t be any easy wins for the rest of this season and Auburn probably won’t be favored in any games for the rest of the way unless significant players are able to start playing towards the end.

Oklahoma State might seem like a weaker team in the Big 12, and they are certainly near the bottom of that league, but on a national level they’re still a good basketball team. Four of their six Big 12 losses have come to top 25 teams and they have a win over Kansas on their resume as well.

Oklahoma State didn’t have to play their first road game until January 5, and coming to Auburn Arena will be only their fifth true road game of the season. The Cowboys have lost all four previous road games by an average of almost 14 points. This puts them in a very similar position as Auburn.

It’s no secret that the Tigers have greatly struggled on the road this season, but it’s a good sign that Oklahoma State has as well. Auburn isn’t quite as good as Oklahoma State on a neutral court in my opinion, but the home crowd should really narrow the gap for the Tigers against the Cowboys.

Jan 13, 2016; Stillwater, OK, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys guard Jawun Evans (1) drives to the basket against the Oklahoma Sooners during the second half at Gallagher-Iba Arena. OU won 74-72. Mandatory Credit: Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 13, 2016; Stillwater, OK, USA; Oklahoma State Cowboys guard Jawun Evans (1) drives to the basket against the Oklahoma Sooners during the second half at Gallagher-Iba Arena. OU won 74-72. Mandatory Credit: Rob Ferguson-USA TODAY Sports /

When you begin to scout Oklahoma State, the first player that’s going to stand out this season is Jawun Evans. Evans was a 4-star recruit and is almost surpassing his expectations this season for the Cowboys. Evans is averaging 12.5 points and 5.2 assists to just 2.7 turnovers per game. Evans really started getting people’s attention with his 42 point performance against Oklahoma in a game where the Cowboys were almost able to pull off the big upset.

The showdown between Kareem Canty and Stefan Moody didn’t quite live up to the hype in Auburn’s last game against Ole Miss, but this game should be another great matchup between two really good point guards.

Canty has played really well in front of his home crowd this season and we’ll see how much Auburn Arena affects the play of Jawun Evans. Canty was close to a triple-double against Ole Miss, but it’s clear that he has to be a scorer for Auburn to succeed. Eight rebounds and 9 assists helped spread the ball around and get other players involved, but if Auburn is going to beat Oklahoma State, Canty will have to score 15 or more points at the very least.

TJ Lang was the shining bright spot against Ole Miss with his season high 19 points. Lang and Bryce Brown both got back to their better shooting performances and that needs to continue for Auburn to shift the scoring responsibilities away from Canty. Auburn is at their best when they’re shooting the three ball well, and if Auburn has three or four shooters who are able to get open, it will lead to many more open shots with shooters who are capable of knocking them down.

Oklahoma State is allowing opposing teams to shoot just above 31 percent from behind the arc this season, but Auburn will need to push that up to at least 40 percent if they want a chance to score enough points to win.

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Scoring is a big part of basketball, but rebounding continues to be the difference in most games that really sets two teams apart. In the first half against Ole Miss, Auburn had one of their better rebounding efforts of the season, but then it almost completely disappeared in the second half.

Oklahoma State is one of the worst teams in the country, allowing offensive rebounds on over 32 percent of missed shots. Cinmeon Bowers, Tyler Harris, and Horace Spencer really need to take advantage of this for Auburn. It’s unlikely that Auburn is going to shoot insanely well against a good team like Oklahoma State, but if the Tigers are able to get second chance points off of misses and offensive rebounds, then they’ll keep pace with the Cowboys.

The game boils down to two teams that are near the bottom of their respective conferences. Oklahoma State is at the bottom of a much better conference this year and is statistically a much better team this year. However, Auburn Arena has been a big difference maker in Auburn’s last few home games and I don’t think that will change on Saturday night.

This game may be a deciding factor in which conference wins the Big 12/SEC Challenge, and I think Auburn can get the job done, but just barely. Auburn wins 75-72 and gets back to a .500 record on the season.

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