Auburn basketball: 5 overreactions to exhibition win vs. Southern Indiana

It was as electric as an exhibition could be at the Auburn Arena Friday night when Bruce Pearl’s Auburn basketball pulled away late to pick up a double-digit victory over the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles.

68-54 was the final, but make no mistake about it: this was a wire-to-wire war between Pearl’s Tigers and a USI squad coached by Stan Gouard, the star player on Pearl’s 1995 Division II national championship team.

Down 54-46 in the second half, it seemed as though Gouard–who picked up a win over Pearl’s Tennessee Volunteers in 2010 with Indianapolis–would be well on his way to a preseason shocker.

But a 22-0 run that featured 3-pointers from Devan Cambridge, Wendell Green Jr., and Jabari Smith sculpted the score to what many probably would have expected coming into the night as the final buzzer sounded.

While yes, it was an exhibition, Fly War Eagle is here to overreact to the contest with these 5 specific overreactions:

Auburn basketball overreaction #1: Devan Cambridge should be a starter all season

Devan Cambridge is likely to be the starting small forward in the wake of Allen Flanigan’s early-season Achilles injury recovery.

But he should remain a starter even when Flanigan returns.

Cambridge started 19 of 27 games last season, and that was through both the short-lived Justin Powell era and slightly less short-lived Sharife Cooper era. That experience is valuable, and the junior is one of the veterans on this young team.

Cambridge could be a steady hand in the starting lineup and offers spacing for a team that will need operating room in the paint.