Auburn Basketball vs Vanderbilt Preview and Predictions

After news of Kareem Canty officially leaving the team to declare for the NBA Draft, Auburn (9-14, 3-8) gets a rematch with Vanderbilt (14-10, 6-5) as the Tigers look to get even with the Commodores after falling to Vanderbilt earlier in the season.

The news of Kareem Canty calling it quits early is a bit of a shock to some people, but it’s been expected that he wasn’t going to play the rest of this season due to his suspension anyways. Bruce Pearl and the other coaches also had a good feeling that he planned to enter the draft after the season.

While this definitely doesn’t help Auburn for the rest of the season, I don’t think it comes as a shock to the team. The players that are left have already had two games to get used to playing without Canty and they’ll have the opportunity to keep learning over the course of the rest of the season.

Cinmeon Bowers will continue to start at point guard and this will be his first chance to run the offense in front of a home crowd. Auburn will have a slight advantage while playing in Auburn Arena on Saturday evening, but they’ll likely need much more than that to knock off the Commodores who are trying their best to finish strong and find themselves on the right side of the bubble as March quickly approaches.

The first time Auburn and Vanderbilt faced each other this season Luke Kornet had a triple-double with all 10 of Vanderbilt’s blocks. Kornet will most likely once again be a big factor in this game. On offense Kornet only had 11 points in the first matchup, but I’d expect him to have a few more this time around as he’s now had time to get back to his early season efficiency from behind the three-point line and in the paint.

Auburn doesn’t have a match for Kornet, Damian Jones, and Josh Henderson who are all over 7-foot down low for the Commodores. Horace Spencer will have to have a game for the ages just to contain the bigs from Vanderbilt.

Last time, Auburn let Vanderbilt score 75 points with four players in double-digits, not including Damian Jones. Vanderbilt has been up-and-down all year, but they’re hitting their stride once again and they’re not going to settle for the NIT again this year.

Vanderbilt was able to spread out their offensive attack last game, but more importantly, they did a great job of shutting Auburn down, even when they had Kareem Canty. Vanderbilt has the second best effective field goal percentage defense and the best three-point field goal percentage in the SEC. While Auburn has been shooting poorly on their own over the past few games, the Tigers will still aim to generate a majority of their points from deep shots, and Vanderbilt is the best at making that difficult.

New Williams has shown a few instances of getting himself an open shot in the last few games, but he’ll need to really create his own shot along side Bryce Brown. If the two freshmen guards can get their own shots, they might be able to draw the defense enough to leave TJ Lang and Jordon Granger open who do a much better job with their shots when they have the ability to spot up.

We’ve wanted it all year, but Tyler Harris, who is expected to play despite a back injury over the past few games, and Cinmeon Bowers will have to be able and finish their shots that they do get at the rim. With three 7-footers guarding the paint inside shots won’t be easy, but if Auburn is able to slip inside they need to capitalize or it could be a long night. Bowers has definitely played his best basketball at home this season, but we’ll see if that is still the case while he also has the point guard responsibilities.

With Tyler Harris being cleared to play, Auburn will be playing with eight scholarship players, one of which is Devin Waddell. Depth has been an issue for Auburn all year, but now with the official departure of Kareem Canty, Auburn has lost five of their top players to injuries or off the court issues. Take five of the best players off of almost any team in the country and I doubt that team is able to win many games. This season is a train wreck for Auburn, but it’s mostly out of their control. Hopefully Auburn fans realize this and will still come out to support the Tigers in Auburn Arena for the 5 p.m. tip off on Saturday.

I don’t think Auburn stands much of a chance in this game, but crazier things have happened in Auburn Arena this season. If the crowd still comes out to support the Tigers, it would greatly help, but I still think Auburn loses this game, 77-60.