Auburn basketball game preview: Texas A&M Aggies

Welp. Round 2 is here. And the Aggies/Border Collies won the first round on all cards. The Tigers will head to College Station for a road date with Texas A&M and look to avenge the loss that broke the longest active home winning streak at the time. Auburn basketball would love to return the favor.

Buzz Williams, in all his glory, will work to sweep Auburn and hand the naysayers more jet fuel to pour on the “Auburn isn’t a tournament team” fire. Bruce Pearl, on the other hand, will look to beat the coach who has given him so many fits since arriving at A&M (3-1 over Auburn including 2-1 against the 2019-20 and 2021-22 teams).

Texas A&M on Offense

A&M has two real redeeming qualities. They’re long, and they’re scrappy. They don’t have the top tier talent that other teams have, but they fight tooth and nail for every position. The length they have allows them to attack the lane more aggressively and get vertical instead of horizontal.

Unfortunately, that length is a big issue when your starting guards are no taller than 6’2”. Allen Flanigan at 6’6” is the only player in the frontcourt with adequate size for his position. Guys like Wendell Green and Zep Jasper will have to stay in front of their guys and not let them leverage to the rim.

Texas A&M on Defense

This is where that aforementioned length is a BIG problem. Passing lanes that are normally open seem tighter. Shooting windows seem tighter. As we all saw in the first matchup, that turns into contested threes and turnovers very quickly. Both of those are problem areas for Auburn.

If Auburn has any aspirations of winning this game, good ball movement and smart decisions are going to be key.

Texas A&M Coaching

I want to say that Auburn is the better team. What I’m going to say is that Auburn is slightly more talented. A&M is a very well coached basketball team. Buzz Williams is an underrated coach and raises the floor of his players. While Bruce does the same, he doesn’t have an XBox controller in his hand when Allen Flanigan goes rumbling down the lane to pick up another offensive foul, or when Wendell Green Jr. clanks a deep three off of the back iron in an isolation situation.

Predictions for TAMU vs Auburn basketball

I try to stay out of the predictions game with this edition of Auburn basketball, but who cares at this point? They’re gonna either be fun to watch or incredibly mind numbing to watch.

We’re going full barn. Good guys come out angry after getting dropped from the AP Top 25 and blow the doors off the place.

As always, War Eagle.