Auburn basketball: Tigers set to travel to Washington for rematch
After a year delay, Auburn has scheduled a rematch against the Washington Huskies in Seattle.
At the start of Auburn’s 2018-19 season in which they made the Final Four, the Tigers were faced with one of the toughest non-conference games in recent program history.
A ranked Washington Huskies squad led by future NBA players Matisse Thybulle and Jaylen Norwell was coming into Auburn arena with the goal of disrupting the Tigers season in only the second game of the year.
It was the first game between the two programs in history and in the end, a raucous Auburn Arena crowd, tenacious rebounding and a strong shooting performance from the Tigers was too much for Washington to handle as Auburn came out with an 88-66 victory.
The Tigers were led by Chuma Okeke’s 19 points and 10 rebounds while the trio of Samir Doughty, Bryce Brown and Jared Harper chipped in 18, 13 and 13 points respectively.
The two teams originally had agreed to home-and-home series meaning that the Tigers were supposed to travel to Seattle to play the Huskies this past season. However, in April of 2019, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothenstein announced that the game would be pushed back to the 2020-21 season.
Auburn announced the game on Wednesday and the date for the game has been set for November 19. at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle although no specific tipoff time has been set. The game will mark the Tigers’ first-ever game in the state of Washington.
While the November matchup will present the opportunity for the Huskies to get revenge on Auburn for their blowout loss in 2018, neither Auburn nor Washington will have vastly different rosters than before.
Every single scholarship player on that 2018 Auburn roster has now either gone pro or graduated. It is a similar story for UW who has lost their starting five from that game but does return key pieces such as rising senior wing Nahziah Carter and senior forward Hameir Wright.
Last season, the Tigers finished with a 25-6 record and were primed to possibly make another run in the NCAA Tournament before it was canceled due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
On the other hand, the Huskies endured a rebuilding year last season as the team finished with a 15-17 record.
Nonetheless, the Tigers are losing all five starters from last year’s squad and are a bit of a mystery going into next season. Auburn has lost seniors J’Von McCormick, Danjel Purifoy, Anfernee McLemore, Austin Wiley and Samir Doughty while star freshman Isaac Okoro is likely to be a lottery pick in the upcoming NBA Draft.
While UW does return some talent from their 2019-20 team, they are also losing a pair of talented freshmen in Isaiah Stewart and Jaden McDaniels. The duo were the team’s top scorers and rebounders last season and have both declared for the NBA Draft.