Auburn enters this afternoon’s game with a record of 11-10, 5-7. The Tigers have lost three of their last four games but are coming off of a win on Tuesday night at Vanderbilt. Coach Bruce Pearl’s team has continued to play well since giving the keys to the offense to Sharife Cooper, but a couple of close losses to Georgia and Ole Miss, and their Big 12/SEC Challenge defeat to #2 Baylor, ended their hot streak of wins. They are still an extremely dangerous team that can score points in a hurry.

Back on January 18th, Auburn escaped with a 66-59 victory over the ‘Cats in what was one of the ugliest basketball games we have seen this season. The score was still 2-2 with 13:00 minutes to play in the first half and Auburn didn’t get off of two points until nearly the 10:00 minute mark. However, the Tigers used a 15-3 run in the second half to overtake Kentucky. Sophomore guard Allen Flanigan led the way with 21 points and 9 rebounds while Sharife Cooper added 11 points and 8 assists. Auburn shot just 5/24 from 3-point range but collected 16 offensive rebounds and forced the Wildcats into 18 turnovers to help secure the victory.

The Tigers rank fifth nationally in 3-point field goal attempts and are 33rd overall with 9.2 made triples per game. With Cooper at point guard the pace of play has remained has high as ever for Coach Pear as the team averages 76.6 possessions per game, 19th most in the country. The flip side of playing so fast though is that Auburn turns the ball over a lot. Their 16.4 turnovers per game places them near the bottom in the country, 322nd overall.

Kentucky will seek revenge on the Tigers in this afternoon’s SEC matchup that tips off at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time at Rupp Arena. The game will be played on CBS. The ‘Cats have started to improve offensively, scoring over 70 points in four of their last five games, including breaking 80 twice, but have just one win to show for it over that same time span.

Personnel

Starters

#2 Sharife Cooper: 6’1″ 180 lbs, Freshman Point Guard

20.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 8.7 apg

Extremely quick Point Guard. Super aggressive. Looking to push the ball FAST in transition. Need to get all the way back to protect the rim and then get the ball stopped. SCOOT BACK when you are guarding him. Do not guard him outside of the 3-point line. Go under all ballscreens and handoffs. If you happen to run into the screen then just switch it. Be very willing to switch. Stay between him and the basket. He will make bad decisions and try to do too much if you just stay between him and the basket. The goal is to make him shoot 3’s. He is 11/45 this season. Make him shoot five or more 3-pointers. Keep your feet inside the 3-point line at all times and go under all screens. Show your hands has he drives it. Play without fouling. He will flop a lot so just get your hands up and don’t foul. ABSOLUTELY NO LAYUPS!!! Do not bring any help when he drives. Cut down his assists by making it a 1-on-1 game. DO NOT HELP!!! Keep backing up and make him finish over you. If you cut down his assists by not helping off of shooters and not helping up off of post players it will force him into more bad decisions. Five or fewer assists for him. Make him shoot from the outside. BACK UP when you are guarding him!!!

#22 Allen Flanigan: 6’6″ 215 lbs, Sophomore Guard

13.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 3.0 apg

Lefty. Aggressive scorer. SHOOTER!!! NO 3’s!!! Half of his shots have been 3’s. Have to be there on the catch to take away the 3’s. Be tight to him at all times. You have to pick him up well above the 3-point line because he will shoot them from deep. He will shoot deep step back 3’s off the dribble too. Stay in his body and force him to drive it right. Wants to drive it LEFT once you take away the 3. No left hand drives. Chase him off of downscreens and get over the flares. Go over ballscreens and handoffs. Do not help off of him! Tighten up to him as the ball is dribbled towards you. Absolutely no help off of him. Find him in transition. Your goal when guarding him is to take away his 3-point attempts. Contest everything. He will catch it on the block some and score with his left hand over his right shoulder. No 3’s!!! Take away his attempts.

#35 Devan Cambridge: 6’6″ 215 lbs, Sophomore Guard

8.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 0.8 apg

SHOOTER!!! NO 3’s!!! 104 of 167 shots have been 3’s. Have to be there on the catch to take away the 3’s. Be tight to him at all times. Absolutely no help off of him. Tighten up to him as the ball is driven towards you. Chase him off of downscreens and get over the flares. Switch if he ballscreens in order to take away the 3. Make him dribble it. If he isn’t dribbling then you aren’t close enough to him. 17 assists to 30 turnovers. He is really only in there to catch-and-shoot. Your only job when guarding him is to take away his 3-point attempts. He will look to drive it right once you take away the 3. Make him put it on the floor and try to drive it. Make him score over you. Low percentage finisher. Find him in transition. Pick him up early outside of the 3-point line. Will shoot them from deep. No 3’s! Box out!

#23 Jaylin Williams: 6’8″ 230 lbs, Sophomore Forward

10.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.3 apg

Lefty. Super athletic and strong. Good shooter. 28/74 from 3. No catch and shoot 3’s. Be there on the catch to take away the initial 3 and then bounce back to guard against the left hand drive. No left hand drives! He isn’t hunting 3’s in the same way that #22 Flanigan or #1 Johnson are, but you still have to be tight to him and be there on the catch. Tighten up to him as the ball is dribbled towards you. Do not help when #2 Cooper drives it. Ballscreens and rolls to the rim looking for the lob. Likes to slip ballscreens. Good cutter off of the ball. Have to be aware of him cutting. Don’t get back cut. Really pressure him when he has the ball. Not super comfortable handling it. Just don’t get smoked to his left hand. Runs the floor hard in transition. Get all the way back and protect the rim. No layups or dunks for him. BOX OUT!!!

#10 J.T. Thor: 6’10″ 205 lbs, Freshman Forward

8.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 0.9 apg

Lefty. Skilled 5-man. Willing shooter. Taking over two 3’s per game but is 14/53 on the season. You can closeout a step or two short and just throw a hand up to contest if he shoots it from outside. Ballscreens and rolls to the rim. He is good at getting it on the roll. Likes to face up around the basket and try to drive it left. No left hand drives. Will go right to set up the spin move to come back left. Left hand, right shoulder in the post. Be physical on his right shoulder. No left hand baskets on the block. Closeout short to him on the perimeter to protect against the left hand drive. You can help off of him a little bit, but we still don’t want to over help when Cooper drives it. Make him score with you between him and the basket. Be physical. All left hand! BOX OUT!

Bench

#1 Jamal Johnson: 6’4″ 195 lbs, Junior Guard

9.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.7 apg

SHOOTER!!! NO 3’s!!! 117 of 169 shots have been 3’s. Have to be there on the catch to take away the 3’s. He ONLY wants to catch and shoot. Once you take away the 3 he will want to shoot the pull-up jumper. Contest everything. Absolutely no help off of him. Tighten up to him as the ball is dribbled towards you. Chase him off downscreens and get over the flares. Doesn’t really want to make plays off the dribble. Closeout all the way into his chest. If he isn’t dribbling you aren’t close enough. Pick him up well outside the 3-point line because he will shoot them from deep. Your only job when guarding him is to take away his 3-point attempts. He will run into some ballscreens. Switch if he ballscreens. Will slip some too. Do not switch if he slips. NO 3’s!!!

#44 Dylan Cardwell: 6’11″ 250 lbs, Freshman Center

4.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.5 apg

Backup 5-man. Strong and physical. Looking to ballscreen and roll to the rim. Just wants to score at the rim. Shooting 70.6% from the field. Wants to dunk everything. They will throw the lob to him on the roll or on the rim-run in transition. Plays with super high energy. Don’t let him play harder than you! Right hand, left shoulder in the post. They aren’t really going to throw it to him in the post. He scores off of dump off passes, lobs, and offensive rebounds. Do not help up off of him when Cooper drives it!!! Stay on him. Box out!!! Averaging 2 offensive rebounds per game. Be physical when the shot goes up. No dunks for him.

#5 Chris Moore:  6’6″ 240 lbs, Freshman Forward

3.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 0.4 apg

Physical wing/forward. More of a driver than a shooter. No right hand drives!!! He will look to be physical as he drives it and score it through your chest. Be ready to get your hands up and be physical. Capable shooter, but not hunting 3’s. Just be there to give a contest if he shoots, but then bounce back to guard against the drive. Likes to catch the ball around the basket and either face up to drive it right or score with his right hand over his left shoulder. Very strong. Excellent offensive rebounder. Box out!

#13 Babatunde Akingbola: 6’10″ 245 lbs, Sophomore Center

2.1 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.2 apg

Another backup 5-man. Ballscreens and rolls to the rim. Looking to catch the lob for a dunk. Just scores on dunks. Will rim run hard in transition. He is in there to block shots and offensive rebound. Excellent shot blocker. BOX OUT!!! No dunks for him. Do not help up off of him when Cooper drives it. Stay on him to take away the lob or dump off pass.

Offense

In typical Bruce Pearl fashion, this Auburn team will play extremely fast with a lot of freedom. Their first goal on every trip down the court is to score as quickly as possible off of a long throw ahead pass or early 3-point shot in transition. That goal has been even more apparent now that Sharife Cooper has the keys to the offense. All five guys will run the floor hard after both makes and misses to see if they can get an easy bucket before the defense is set.

In the half-court, Auburn is a Motion team that will primarily be 4-around-1 but will space into some 5-out as well depending on their lineup. In their 4-around-1 they set a lot of ballscreens with their post player. They are not looking to throw the ball inside. They keep the floor spaced with multiple shooters in the game at all times and allow Cooper to attack the basket off of the dribble. We need to go UNDER all ballscreens set for Cooper or switch them to stay between him and the basket. SCOOT BACK when you are guarding him. So much of what they do offensively is predicated on him penetrating. Stay between him and the basket to take them out of what they want to do.

Transition: Getting back and having sound transition defense is one of the biggest keys to slowing down their scoring attack. Protect the basket, stop the ball, match up to the next most dangerous guy. They will push it hard up the court and are always looking to throw it ahead to a rim runner for a layup. We cannot give up easy baskets like this due to a lack of communication!

Motion: On this possession they bring Devin Cambridge out to the perimeter early so it ends up being 5-out essentially. We want to go UNDER the Cooper ballscreens or switch them. You cannot have two guys on him at any point because he is too good of a passer and their other guys are too good of shooters. Ole Miss hedges the ballscreen which forces #1 Johnson’s defender to help on the roll. Cooper delivers a cross-court pass to Johnson who nails the 3. We want to take this away!

Motion: This is another example of Auburn pulling all of their guys high onto the perimeter to really open up the driving lanes for Cooper. Vanderbilt brings a ton of help on the drive as all five defenders end up with their feet in the paint. We want to NOT help at all with all defenders staying tight to their man. However, this is an example of what just can’t happen. If you ARE going to help this much you cannot give Cooper an And-1. You either need to help and force someone else to beat you or not help at all. We should choose to not help.

High Ballscreen: You should always switch ballscreens when you have “like” defenders. Jacob Toppin and Keion Brooks can guard the same type of players so just switch the ballscreen! Again, having two guys on Cooper is a receipt for disaster. He kicks the ball out for an easy pick-and-pop 3 here.

High Ballscreen: The same issue happens here as the clip above. Vanderbilt just is WAY too sagged into the paint. Stay tight to your man at all times and either go under or switch the Cooper ballscreens so we don’t have to rotate at all.

High Ballscreen: If you get caught up on the ballscreen and can’t go under then you HAVE to switch it. Having two guys on Cooper is no good. Ole Miss gives a little “shadow” to the ballscreen and allows and easy pick-and-pop 3.

High Ballscreen: In this clip from out last game with Auburn, Keion does switch the ballscreen onto Cooper but he does so too aggressively. Switch to stay between Cooper and the basket. Keep your feet inside the 3-point line and away from Cooper. There is no reason to come out to guard him. Coming out too far just allows him to turn the corner for a layup.

Dribble Entry Gut Cut: This is a set play that Coach Pearl has ran a good amount in the last couple of games. Cooper will dribble-enter the ball to the right wing which triggers the guard in the corner to “gut cut” to the top of the key. This is really just an action to isolate a player to drive it from the top of the key. They like to go to #22 Flanigan on this action so he can drive it left.

Defense

Auburn is primarily a half court man-to-man team defensively. One thing they will do is “ICE” as many ballscreens as they can. That means that the on-ball defender jumps out and forces the ball handler towards the baseline. They are able to be more aggressive on the perimeter and try to apply some ball pressure because they are so good at protecting the rim. Auburn is 3rd in the country with 6 blocks per game. That means that we need to do a good job of playing off of two feet at the end of our drives and use shot fakes around the basket. If we can get them up in the air we can draw some fouls and get to the foul line more.

Keys to the Game

Limit transition baskets. Basket, ball, next most dangerous. We have to be sound in transition and take away layups and rhythm 3-pointers. Sprint back after misses and makes!

Take away 3-point attempts. The best way to not give up 3’s is to not allow attempts. We do NOT want to help when Cooper drives the ball. Limit his assists. Tighten up to your man as the ball is driven towards you. No 3’s!!!

SCOOT BACK when guarding #2 Cooper. You should never be outside of the 3-point line. Dare him to shoot. This will keep you from fouling and help you stay between him and the basket. Go under all ballscreens and handoffs. Do not help when he drives at all!

Rebound!!! We gave up 16 offensive rebounds to these guys last time. They probably won’t miss as many shots as they did in our first game so we have to take advantage when they do miss and finish the possession with a rebound.

@BRamseyKSR