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.
Auburn basketball overreaction #2: Dylan Cardwell could be starter material
Dylan Cardwell gives you everything you could ever want in a backup big man. He has energizer bunny energy and has the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand with his chaotic charisma and penchant for prodding the crowd to go wild.
Cardwell was all over the floor swatting shots away and grabbing offensive rebounds to keep Tigers possessions alive. He was one of the reserves that took the floor after an early 9-0 hole to open the game.
The life of the party on the AU sidelines could potentially start games in the middle this season, because who wouldn’t want to start the game out with the energy meter cranked to 11?
Auburn basketball overreaction #3: Chris Moore could be a major contributor in Allen Flanigan’s absence
Chris Moore was another second unit Tiger that hit the floor and immediately changed the tide of the game in the first five minutes.
It really did look like the Screaming Eagles were about to put themselves on the map with an upset win based on how the starters looked. Then Moore kept finding himself open by the rim and laid the backdoor cutting blueprint for the Tigers to exploit with their size advantage on the Great Lakes Valley Conference squad.
Moore should see the floor in non-conference play, and it wouldn’t shock Fly War Eagle even a little to see him make some key plays in at minimum the season’s first two months.
Auburn basketball overreaction #4: ‘Stretch’ Akingbola may not have a role on the 2021-22 Tigers when fully healthy
The 2021-22 Auburn Tigers are in no way, shape, or form lacking on size. Bruce Pearl is literally watching how the Los Angeles Lakers maneuver their big man rotation to figure out how to maximize the trees in his frontcourt.
With that said, he brought in a bunch of talented perimeter talent that will need some time on the floor. If Jaylin Williams is going to get minutes at the 4 over the perimeter–Fly War Eagle would, for the record, like to see some time from #2 at the small forward spot–then ‘Stretch’ Akingbola would be the odd man out, left without a role on this year’s squad.
Auburn basketball overreaction #5: Two point guard lineups should not be frequent
Wendell Green Jr. and Zep Jasper started the game in the backcourt together and the results weren’t ideal. The pair of undersized mid-major transfers both had explosive bursts, but the defense suffered with the two of them together on the floor.
Particularly when Allen Flanigan comes back, these two shouldn’t be paired together too often, especially when K.D. Johnson, Devan Cambridge, and Chris Moore all proved deserving of big minutes.
Johnson in particular could be a high-volume gunner that finds himself at the free-throw line from relentlessly attacking the rim. He could soak up a lion’s share of backup minutes on the wing and lead the reserves in scoring.