Three Lessons We Learned About Auburn Basketball This Week
Jan 21, 2017; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers center Austin Wiley (50) shoots a free throw against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the second half at Auburn Arena. The Tigers beat the Tide 84-64. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
Here we discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of Auburn basketball from performance the following two weeks.
This past week showed Auburn basketball fans the good, the bad and the ugly, as well as how disparate a freshman-laden team can play.
In a 98-69 loss to South Carolina early in the week, the Gamecocks outplayed and outhustled the Tigers throughout the game.
In a surprising 88-80 road win Saturday night against Texas Christian, the Tigers looked like an NCAA Tournament team, shooting more than 53 percent from the field and handing out 23 assists on the 36 baskets.
Here are three key observations from the week:
The Good
Anfernee McLemore, one of the key freshmen, is not starting, but the last two games show that he needs more playing time. Against the Gamecocks, he was the lone bright spot, with 18 points on six of nine shooting from the field in 16 minutes, and he followed that up against TCU with 13 points on a perfect six for six shooting in 18 minutes.
Jan 18, 2017; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers forward Anfernee McLemore and former Auburn player and former NBA player Charles Barkley celebrate head coach Bruce Pearl’s 500th career win at Auburn Arena. Auburn beat LSU 78-74. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
McLemore is only averaging 12.1 minutes per game, but he’s outplaying some of the starters. Now, that might change once he plays against the other team’s starters and not their bench players, but he deserves that chance.
In his last four games, The 6-foot-7 McLemore is shooting an astounding 81 percent from the field. Danjel Purifoy has not been the same player since suffering an injury, so put McLemore in his spot and let him keep doing what he’s been doing.
The Bad
Austin Wiley has shown great progress and is a real presence on the middle, but needs to improve his free throw shooting. In the two games this week, he shot seven out of 19 from the charity stripe, which is less than 37 percent.
Jan 21, 2017; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers center Austin Wiley (50) shoots a free throw against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the second half at Auburn Arena. The Tigers beat the Tide 84-64. Mandatory Credit: John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
Why does this matter? In close games, coach Bruce Pearl has been taking Wiley out of the lineup because of his inability to make free throws. Once he starts making free throws, Wiley can stay in the game and can protect the basket.
Wiley’s not the only one who needs free throw practices. In the last two games, the team has shot 61.5 percent and 60 percent from the line. That’s going to cost the team some close games before the season is over.
The Ugly
Shot selection needs to improve. I’m looking at you Mustapha Heron.
With less than 2 minutes to go and the Tigers clinging to a 10-point lead against the Horned Frogs, Heron drove the basket instead of pulling out and using up some clock. He charged, fouled out and gave TCU a chance to get back in the game.
It’s not just Heron. There’s too been many times this season when Auburn has not understood what type of shot was needed during specific game situations. This was just the most-recent example. Auburn had a 20-point lead earlier in the second half but struggled to finish off TCU because of poor shot selection. We saw the same thing in the close home win against LSU.
Better shot selection will come with maturity, and that’s sorely lacking with this team. But it needs to come soon.
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