Auburn basketball: 5 overreactions from Tigers’ 93-65 Louisiana-Monroe rout

Good teams win, great teams cover. While the competition for Auburn basketball hasn’t been a gauntlet of nationally feared teams, the results have been exactly what any Tiger fan would want.

Two wins and two spread covers.

Auburn was actually down 39-37 to Louisiana-Monroe at the half on Friday night, stunning the Jungle and the entire Auburn Arena through 20 minutes.

But Bruce Pearl lit a fire under his guys at halftime and the Tigers outscored the Warhawks by 30 points in the final frame.

After the thrilling comeback, Fly War Eagle is here to give you our five takeaways from AU’s 93-65 rout of ULM:

Auburn basketball overreaction #1: Jabari Smith is a star in college basketball

For those a bit underwhelmed by Jabari Smith’s collegiate basketball debut, to borrow from Russell Crowe’s Maximus from Gladiator, were you not entertained last night?

Smith showed a Kevin Durant-esque fluidity in his pull-ups and dribble-moves on Friday night, taking one defensive rebound coast-to-coast and converting it into a sweet finger-roll finish at the other end in the second half.

The highlight exemplified the kind of spectacular half Auburn had in the final 20, where they did the unthinkable time and again and seemingly had the point spread bettors in mind with every possession.

Smith had his best stretch in the first half’s waning moments, however, scoring 10 straight points for the Tigers at one point.

The projected NBA lottery pick finished with 23 points,10 rebounds, four steals, two blocks and four turnovers and shot 7/12 overall, 3/5 from the 3-pointline, and 6/8 from the foul line.

Those are star numbers.