Auburn Basketball Part of College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon Tonight
Here we take a look as Auburn basketball gets ready to take on Georgia State as part of the College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon on the ESPN networks.
Auburn basketball will look to start the season 2-0 for the first time since the 2011-12 season as they take on Georgia State tonight as part of the College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon.
The marathon coverage begins at 6 p.m. Central tonight on the ESPN networks and then continues through the night, into the morning, throughout tomorrow afternoon and then wraps up with Duke vs. Kansas Tuesday night.
Georgia State and Auburn will tip-off at 8 p.m. CT on the SEC Network as part of the 24-hour coverage to start the college basketball season.
Auburn began the 2016-17 campaign with an 83-66 win over North Florida, while Georgia State pounded Thomas University 111-69 to start their season.
Last year Georgia State finished with a 16-14 overall record, and were 9-11 in conference play, but were bounced in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
They return their best player from a year ago in senior forward Jeremy Hollowell. He averaged 14.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game last season. In their opener he led the team with 23 points, but was just 5-of-15 from the field.
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A big addition to this team is redshirt senior forward Willie Clayton who transferred from Charlotte and sat out last season. He posted a double-double against Thomas University scoring 11 points with 13 rebounds.
Those two will be a force to be reckoned with down low for Auburn’s bigs, but I think we can handle them.
Horace Spencer and Danjel Purifoy both had foul trouble in the first game – we’ll need them to avoid that against Georgia State. If those two stay on the floor I think they slow down Hollowell and Clayton.
As for Auburn’s offense, Bryce Brown got the start for Auburn in game one and that proved to be a great decision as he led the team with 19 points. As will always be the case for Brown, his effectiveness is dependent on hitting the three. Against North Florida he was 5-of-10 from 3-point range, and only hit one other field goal shot.
I want to see more from Jared Harper and Mustapha Heron in this game. They both finished with 10 points against North Florida, but I want to see them be more aggressive against Georgia State.
At times the Auburn offense was stagnant, and I’m hoping that’s when guys like Harper and Heron can create some offense. That’s what I’ll be looking for tonight.
My prediction:
Auburn – 91
Georgia State – 78
War Eagle!
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