Bruce Pearl addresses inside advantage against Alabama
Head coach Bruce Pearl led the Auburn Tigers to a big win over rival Alabama on Wednesday night. A huge part of that game came down to the advantage that Auburn had on the inside.
Following the win, Pearl addressed the inside advantage that the Tigers had over the Crimson Tide.
“Alabama plays physical and they play hard,” Bruce Pearl said. “Their frontline is athletic. Ira Bowman coaches our inside kids and I thought Ira has done a great job with all our inside guys of being able to score through contact. The inside game is not a factor in the NBA anymore, it still is in college basketball.”
Auburn only shot 26.3 percent from three-point range. Despite that, the Tigers scored 99 points in the win, largely on the back of getting to the free throw line 50 times. On top of that, Auburn also snagged seven more rebounds than Alabama while also blocking 11 shots during the game.
Forwards Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome, in particular, dominated for Auburn, scoring 26 and 24 points respectively.
On the other side of the game Bruce Pearl, Alabama head coach Nate Oats also noticed there was a big difference between the two teams inside that he explained after the game.
“I mean, look, you know? We didn’t want to double. I saw other teams that doubled gave up a bunch of threes to them. In hindsight, as bad as we lost? Maybe we should have doubled more and then try to rotate around and try to take the three away. They only hit five threes tonight. The problem is they went to the free-throw line 50 times and shot 40 out of 50 free throws,” Oats said.
“Their bigs? 9-for-10, 9-for-11 between their starting four and five in Williams and Broome. And they’re both good. They may have the best frontcourt, when you look at the four and the five, in the league. We didn’t do a very good job with it. Part of it is we started small and they punished us. We’ve got to have a better answer for it if we’re going to continue to start small like that.”
Charles Barkley calls Alabama players ‘little skinny dudes’ amid blowout Auburn win
Auburn legend Charles Barkley was on hand to watch Auburn beat Alabama. There, he noticed that the Crimson Tide looked small inside, especially compared to the Tigers.
“Alabama got all these little skinny dudes out there. Coach Oats, Nate, does a fantastic job,” Barkley said. “When I was looking at the game early, I said, ‘Man, Broome should have a big night’ because Alabama, their guards are terrific, but they have no size inside.”