Growing pains weren’t something Auburn basketball fans had to go through during the latter years of the Bruce Pearl era, especially last season when the Tigers ran through a gauntlet of a non-conference schedule almost unscathed, with the only loss coming to Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
This year is different, with Steven Pearl taking over and an almost brand-new team taking the floor for Auburn. After Saturday’s blowout loss to Purdue in Indianapolis, the Tigers sit at 8-4 going into the Christmas break. To put it in perspective, Auburn’s fourth loss didn’t come until the final game of the regular season last season.
With the exception of a one-point loss to Houston in November, Auburn’s matchups against the top teams in the country – No. 1 Arizona, No. 2 Michigan and No. 5 Purdue – have all seen the Tigers get routed, but Pearl did see one thing he liked from his team this past week before the matchup against the Boliermakers.
“Our guys battled, our effort was there,” Pearl said. “We needed some more step-up from a few guys. (Overton) stepped up, took some really hard coaching this week, and he responded. He flew around, played really hard. That’s a really good team in a tough environment. For us to be competitive in these games, we’ve got to make shots, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Overton was the lone highlight of the night, leading Auburn with 22 points and five rebounds as the Tigers’ lack of size once again proved to be a problem. As one of the many newcomers on this year’s team – Tahaad Pettiford is the only key player back from last year’s Final Four team – the Oklahoma City native is preaching patience with this team as they look forward to beginning SEC play after a final non-conference game against Queens.
“We’re young,” Overton said. “We’re learning how to be in these games, how to compete on a consistent level. We took strides, especially defensively, our approach in practice. All of those things are coming together. We’ve got to stay with it.”