What We Learned: Memphis hands Auburn its first loss

No. 11 Auburn lost 82-73 against Memphis in Atlanta on Saturday. Memphis laid a blueprint for beating Auburn in several ways. Penny Hardaway’s Tigers spaced out Auburn’s defense and took away Auburn’s shot blocking, dominated Auburn on the boards, and pestered Auburn enough to keep the Tigers out of rhythm on offense. Auburn also had some self-inflicted wounds and gave a few reminders and flashes about how Bruce Pearl’s squad can improve. But, it wasn’t pretty. The Tigers will take more losses soon if changes aren’t made, but getting exposed will give Auburn a chance to make corrections before the start of conference play. The Tigers also still have the pieces to win games like this.