For the first time in SEC play, I’m writing a game preview following an Auburn road win. Auburn (10-15, 4-9) knocked off Arkansas (12-14, 5-8) on Wednesday night in Bud Walton Arena, and now return to Auburn Arena to face Ole Miss (16-10, 6-7) looking to revenge its loss earlier this season in the Pavilion.
For the Arkansas game, the win couldn’t have come at a better time. Auburn was able to snap their seven-game losing streak in order to boost their own confidence and hopefully give the inconsistent fans a reason to come and watch the team on Saturday.
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Earlier I listed the Ole Miss and Georgia home games as Auburn’s best chances to get wins this season. The Tigers helped me out and won at Arkansas as well, which gives me more confidence that the Tigers can get it done and potentially start a win streak.
In the first meeting this season, Auburn faced an Ole Miss team that was playing without their key big man, Sebastian Saiz. Saiz was held out of six games with an eye injury, but recently returned to action with the help of a pair of sunglasses to wear during the game. Saiz has gotten off to a semi-slow start, averaging just 7.7 points and 5.3 rebounds in his first three games back. Don’t be fooled though, Saiz always has a knack for pulling down rebounds and can work inside the paint on the offensive end.
Horace Spencer should be able to handle Saiz on defense, but I’m worried that Auburn won’t be able to hold him off the glass enough. Cinmeon Bowers is still rebounding the ball very well, but as a point guard, he isn’t always in the best position.
For the last matchup, I hyped it up as a showdown between Stefan Moody and Kareem Canty. Well, Canty is obviously not with Auburn this time, so who will be able to match up with Moody and put points on the board? Bryce Brown stated yet another case against Arkansas that he has the ability to be an excellent shooter and high scorer for the Tigers. While I don’t think Brown will knock down as many as nine three-pointers this time, I expect the freshman to have another great game.
Brown has been a streaky player most of the year with his fair share of slumps and hot shooting streaks. After a huge game for his confidence before returning to Auburn Arena, I have a feeling that we’ll see Bryce Brown show off his ability to be a scorer from behind the three-point line, and even other areas of the court.
Auburn, with just 4 to 5 players capable of regularly scoring the basketball, aren’t the hardest team to game plan for at this point in the season. Andy Kennedy usually knows what he’s doing so I expect he’ll try to limit the shots that Bryce Brown gets from deep.
If that’s the case, it will be important for Tyler Harris to have another good game and shift the scoring to down low in the paint. Harris also broke out of a pretty bad slump against Arkansas and hopefully we’ll see him keep it up against Ole Miss. Harris has the ability to get around most defenders with his various post moves, but the issue has been finishing the shot on many occasions. He was able to finish against Arkansas, while shooting 8-of-11 inside and avoided shooting any threes. Tyler Harris needs to keep going to his bread and butter and rack up points inside and potentially draw a few fouls in the process.
In my mind, Cinmeon Bowers, Tyler Harris, and Bryce Brown are the obvious key players for Auburn. All three of them need to play well. With a home crowd I don’t think they need to play as well as they did against Arkansas, but it surely wouldn’t hurt.
Look for Horace Spencer to stay in the game for the full duration and hopefully he can lock down the defensive end once again. He showed a few glimpses of offensive explosion against Arkansas, so playing well on both ends is a helpful bonus from the freshman. If I’m being really ideal, Jordon Granger and TJ Lang also add a few threes.
I was pleasantly surprised with the crowd that showed up for the beginning of the Vanderbilt game, and I expect an even better crowd on Saturday when Auburn faces Ole Miss. Auburn is attempting to stripe out Auburn Arena – similar to what they did against Ole Miss in football this season.
Regardless of whether this is a success or failure, I hope Auburn fans are ready to be loud and support the team after they finally got a win to snap the demoralizing losing streak.
For the rest of this season, Auburn will have to continue to get great performances form almost every player on their undermanned squad. The margin for error is a little bigger when Auburn’s playing at home, especially in front of a typical Saturday crowd.
I want to pick the Tigers to continue their streak with another win against Ole Miss, but I think Stefan Moody and Sebastian Saiz will still be too much for this Auburn team. Auburn played a near perfect game against Arkansas and still only won by four.
On Saturday, I think Auburn falls to Ole Miss by a score of 74-70.