Steven Pearl made it known after the overtime loss to Georgia that he wasn’t happy with many things, especially how Auburn played defense against the Bulldogs, stating that his team lacked any identity on that side of the court and that they needed to get some pride to start guarding better.
The first-year Auburn coach called out his guards, who allowed two Georgia guards – Jeremiah Wilkinson and Marcus Millender – combine for 55 points in the 104-100 loss. On Monday, as Pearl previewed Auburn’s matchup against Texas A&M on Tuesday evening, he brought up the deficiencies on the defensive end again.
“We made 127 defensive mistakes if you're just going to nitpick it and look through everything,” the coach said. “Everyone cuts three or four of their mistakes out defensively throughout that game; we win by 10.”
The Tigers weren’t the first team to allow a lot of points to Georgia, with Mike White’s team leading the nation by scoring 99.4 points per game. But it was the mistakes and silly fouls that bothered Pearl in Saturday’s game. He mentioned the pump fakes that the Tigers fell for, many coming out on the perimeter, along with some early fouls that he considered “ridiculous.”
Individual instruction being used to point out mistakes
To get rid of the mistakes, Pearl has made it a habit of showing his players what they did wrong, mostly on a one-to-one basis instead of in front of the entire team, hoping the individual instructions will stick more than they would in a group setting.
There were some highlights, though, as Pearl pointed out that the Tigers had 23 good defensive possessions against Georgia. But, as he points out, those weren’t enough to keep the Bulldogs from scoring points.
“Problem is there were like 80-something possessions in the game,” Pearl said. “So in the other 60 possessions, we weren't very good.”
Auburn hosts Texas A&M in the Tigers’ home SEC opener on Tuesday at 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network.