Takeaways: Bruce Pearl talks physical challenge Auburn faces against Indiana, Aden Holloway's recent struggles and more

AUBURN — Auburn (5-2) returns to action on Saturday against Indiana (7-1) inside State Farm Arena in Atlanta. The game is slated for a 1pm CT tipoff on ESPN.

The Tigers are ranked No. 17 in the KenPom ratings, whereas Indiana is ranked No. 65. The Hoosiers’ strength of schedule has lacked, but Bruce Pearl believes it will be the Tigers’ second-toughest game of the season to date behind the Baylor game to open the season.

“Indiana is a blue blood,” Pearl said. “What an opportunity for us to be able to play one of the blue bloods in college basketball. I say that with all due respect. Baylor will be the best team we’ve faced so far, and Indiana will clearly be the second-best team we’ve seen so far.”

“This will be a very physical game on Saturday. Indiana coming out of the Big Ten has two dominating post players. (Kel’el Ware averages 17.1 ppg and 9.4 reb, while Malik Reneau averages 14.8 and 4.6.) Those two guys, Indiana has the best front line in the Big Ten. We’d like to think we have one of the best front lines in the SEC, so it’ll be a great matchup from that standpoint.”

This will be the second-ever meeting between the two programs. Indiana won the first meeting 107-90 in the 1987 NCAA Tournament.

Read more from Pearl below:

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Auburn’s last two games have produced effective field goal percentages of 40.3 and 41.7 — the two lowest percentages of the season. The team is 5-43 from deep, and while Pearl isn’t pleased, he is content with the quality of the shots taken.

“The question is, are we going to shoot it better? I liked the shots we got at App State, some were contested, some were open, and I got confidence in our guys to knock them down. We need to shoot the ball better. Virginia Tech and App State are good basketball teams and you may not have quite as much time and space as you would against other opponents.”

Auburn is shooting 69.3 percent from the FT line, which ranks 231st nationally.

“Nobody is guarding us at the foul line, so we have to do a better job of making more than nine and missing 10 in a close game. These games against good teams are going to be close games.”

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Pearl coached at Southern Indiana while Bob Knight was the head coach at Indiana. Pearl credits Knight for helping teach the game of basketball to the

“I was there when Coach Knight was there. I was watching Coach Knight, listening to his radio show and I was always impressed with how he communicated with the fans. He absolutely taught the game to the fanbase and he had more respect for the fans than the media. He would give the media such a hard time and barely ask their questions, and some random caller from Fishers, Indiana would call and he’d answer that question and break it down and I learned a lot by listening to him.”

“Let’s take Indiana, North Carolina, Kentucky — their fans know the game. They knew the game because in high school, they played the game. There is a basketball rim or backboard on every light pole in the state, everybody’s backyard. As a result, the high school coaching is outstanding. The youth coaching is outstanding. The players are high IQ. I think the biggest thing I learned — now, they don’t know anything about football. Where as our fanbase has forgotten more than some of our coaches know about football. We pride ourselves on that in the SEC, just means more, and we dominate the football conference. That’s the biggest takeaway. They build high school gyms in Indiana that hold six and seven-thousand and fill them on Friday nights. It’s like Texas high school football, or Alabama high school football. It’s the same thing. We’re kind of an everything school, which is awesome. They are a men’s college basketball school.”

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Indiana is only shooting 26 percent from three through eight games, but doesn’t shoot the ball from deep very often either. The Hoosiers have attempted more than 16 threes only once this season, shooting 11 or less threes four times.

“A lot of your defensive schemes will be how to defend the post. They are going to get it in there, so what do you do when they get it in there. A lot of what we’re doing now is dealing with that. That’s your challenge all the way from your on-ball stuff to off-ball stuff, being able to make the adjustments to playing a dominating front line, dominating post team. We may not play another team like that all year long.”

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Auburn commits over 20 fouls per game. That ranks in the bottom 12 percent nationally. With Indiana’s propensity to dump the ball down low and work, how will Johni Broome, Dylan Cardwell and Jaylin Williams handle that?

“Well, I have 10 fouls to use, that’s 10 out of 22. They dump it in there. Reneau in particular, he forces you to foul him. He’s big, strong, physical, athletic, bouncy, he’s a terror in there. It’s going to be a challenging game for the officials to call the post. But you have to defend Johni, you have to defend Dylan, you have to guard our guys inside, too. They go to the line a lot and draw a lot of fouls.”

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How does Pearl think his Auburn team has responded and will continue to respond following the road loss at App State?

“I think they did good. It’s all about the math, right? I’m sure, people are wondering why you would go to App State and play, in addition to it being the right thing to do and it’s never the wrong time to do the right thing. If it’s the right thing to do, why doesn’t everyone do it? App State is 47 in the NET, that’s a Quad I loss on the road right now, and yet it was a winnable game for us in spite of that hostile environment. It will wind up being a Quad II loss because once they get into the Sun Belt their math won’t be as good as it is right now, and it could have been a Quad I road win. Our guys, we did a lot of good things. The biggest thing is the confidence. I want our guys to be confident and if they are open, I want them to shoot it. I thought for the most part, most of the shots we took were good shots.”

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Auburn freshman Aden Holloway started the season strong 19, 11 and 15 points in his first three college basketball games. But since, he’s struggled. Holloway is averaging 4.75 points per game in his last three games, shooting 7-36 from the field. Pearl believes the challenge is Holloway adjusting to defenses as the season goes on and more tape of Holloway’s game becomes available.

“When I’m coaching my players, I know what they are really good at. Let’s say the first time the world saw Aden in a college basketball was at Baylor. He shot the ball well. He did some things in that game, he can really shoot it. Well, the opponents have seen that and are doing some things defensively — and then as as result, we have to work harder to get him those shots, or he has to do other things to take advantage of how the defenses are guarding him.”