It’s been an Achilles heel for Auburn all season long, and you can either blame the Tigers’ defense, a team getting hot, an opposing player going out of his mind or a combination of the three, but when teams see the Auburn uniform on the other side of them, they suddenly become the Harlem Globetrotters in three-point shooting.
Josh Hubbard is the epitome of a player who took advantage of Auburn’s three-point defense, nailing an eye-popping nine in the first half of Mississippi State’s upset victory over the Tigers in February. But the Bulldogs’ senior guard also hit some shots that even Stephen Curry had to wonder how he made it.
Auburn's three-point defense ranks 348th in Division I
With Auburn’s NCAA tournament hopes hanging on the edge, in comes another player who can light it up from deep: LSU’s Max Mackinnon.
“I mean, he can obviously make threes at a high, higher rate, but you watch the Ole Miss game, and he hit like six tough twos, and that's just, you know, he's a really talented scorer," Steven Pearl said. "So our guys got to take some pride in their one-on-one defense, and it would be great for us to be able to lock down a really good player.”
The Bayou Bengals guard enters Tuesday’s matchup shooting 39.2 percent from beyond the arc, while Pearl’s squad is all the way down at No. 348 in Division I in defending the three, allowing opponents to shoot 37.1 percent from outside.
But as Pearl points out, Mackinnon isn’t the only threat LSU puts on the court. Forward Marquel Sutton averages 13.3 points per game and will provide problems for Auburn on the inside and out.
“Sutton is just incredibly productive and does a lot of really good things for him, and their bigs do a great job of getting offensive rebounds and getting him extra possessions,” Pearl said. “And we got to find a way to shut his water off because when he scores, they're obviously really effective.”
Auburn and LSU tip off at 9 p.m. CT on SEC Network.