Auburn Basketball at Georgia Preview and Predictions

Auburn (9-12, 3-6) takes their 4-game losing streak to Georgia (12-8, 5-4) looking to get their first road win in the SEC this season. Auburn has struggled all year on the road and is also coming off of two straight home loses in Auburn Arena. Auburn looks to get a road win in hopes of regaining their confidence down the stretch.

Losing isn’t fun, and the effects of the losing streak is starting to show on the floor in both the players’ attitude and level of play. Auburn hasn’t had as many absolutely terrible performances in the last few games, but they certainly haven’t been good either. The Tigers are struggling to find consistency on offense and still can’t keep other teams from scoring for multiple possessions in a row. Bruce Pearl doesn’t like losing, Auburn’s players don’t like losing, and the fans are getting tired of losing. Auburn has no where to go but up for the rest of the season, but they need to get a win, or at least a good game soon if they want to have any chance at salvaging this season and ending on a better note.

Going on the road to face Georgia won’t be an easy task, but the Tigers shouldn’t be completely counted out. The Bulldogs are coming off of a big 13 point victory over South Carolina on Tuesday night, which kept them above .500 in SEC play. Georgia has a handful of veteran talent, as well as young guys that are starting to contribute to the Bulldogs’ success this season.

Seniors Charles Mann and Kenny Gaines, as well as Junior JJ Frazier were the leaders for Georgia last year and they’ve continued to step up this season as well. JJ Frazier will be another little guard that can easily give Auburn trouble. So far this season, the Tigers have watched Tyler Ulis and Stefan Moody both have great games against the Tigers. Frazier isn’t quite in the same category as those two, but he’s still deserving of high praise in the SEC and can easily make the Tigers look bad, especially if they keep playing defense like they have. Alongside Frazier is Kenny Gaines who is also adding 13.7 points a game and is shooting over 40 percent from three-point range.

Georgia has skilled, veteran guards, but they have an equally good front court. Senior Charles Mann and Sophomore Yante Maten are averaging 10.6 and 15.8 points a game respectively and Maten also leads the team with 7.7 rebounds per game. Auburn has seen several post players give them trouble this season so I imagine the Bulldogs will look for Mann and Maten to be the difference. At 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-8, Mann and Maten won’t be the biggest players Auburn has had to face down low, which might allow Cinmeon Bowers to hold his own in the paint like he hasn’t really been able to do so far this season. The height will also be a big advantage for Horace Spencer who has been playing great defense with or without a height advantage this year.

Spencer has played well in the last two games while he’s been in the starting lineup. The freshman big man had 11 rebounds and 6 blocks against Oklahoma State, and then also had 7 points and 3 blocks against LSU in a game where he was one of the few people to slow Ben Simmons down. Horace Spencer has probably the brightest future on Auburn’s team based on what we’ve seen from the freshman this season. I expect him to slowly develop an offensive game down the stretch, and a game against a slightly smaller Georgia team could be an opportunity for him to score double-digits for the first time.

Another big bright spot for the Tigers this year has been fellow freshman Bryce Brown who had 18 points, all from three-pointers, against LSU. Brown is starting to show consistency again, and if he can keep it up it will be a key advantage for Auburn and take more pressure off of Kareem Canty in the scoring department.

Jordon Granger and TJ Lang have showed that they can knock down shots when someone gets them the ball, but Brown and Canty are still the only players that really show they know how to make their own shot and knock them down. It’s been awhile since both players have been on from outside, but maybe that will be the case against Georgia. The Bulldogs have been one of the better teams defending the perimeter so far, but if Auburn can finally get it going, they can beat almost anyone.

While Auburn will always want to try and fit the three-point play into their game plan, against Georgia it will be much more advantageous to attack the basket. I’ve already pointed out the slight height advantage for the Tigers, but the Bulldogs have also had a hard time defending inside without fouling this season. In SEC play, Georgia has sent the other team to the line on over 50 percent of the opposing team’s offensive possessions, which is the worst in the league.

Cinmeon Bowers really started aggressively attacking the basket down the stretch against LSU and was able to get to the free throw line for 16 shots. Unfortunately, he was only able to make eight of them, but he had the right idea and other players like Kareem Canty and Tyler Harris should follow his lead against the Bulldogs. If Auburn can get to the line and put the Bulldogs in foul trouble, they might be able to make it a much easier setting on the road.

If Auburn can’t take the home court advantage away from Georgia, the Bulldogs certainly have the veteran leadership and other key players that can send Auburn away with another loss and even less confidence. Last season a similarly ranked Auburn team went into Stegemen Coliseum and got a win over a better Georgia team, so we’ll see if Bruce Pearl can get this team ready again in Athens. Both Bruce Pearl and Bryce Brown talked about wanting to get a road win to boost the confidence and it’s a possibility at Georgia.

Because I’ve watched too many road games where Auburn has just started or finished with zero energy, I don’t think the Tigers will get it done this time. I expect to see a good game from a few players, but the lack of a team effort will once again cause Auburn to drop another game. Georgia gets revenge in Stegemen this year and defeats Auburn, 80-70.