Not good enough.
Auburn lost by a point, which is a clearly defined margin of error. Yet it went much deeper.
These Tigers have a design flaw, if that's what you want to call it. They aren't equipped to rebound against big-ish teams. That doesn't necessarily doom Auburn, but the mere existence of that issue means Pearl's team must find ways to accentuate its strengths when rebounding becomes a central theme.
Rebounding was a central theme against Boston College, which grabbed 49 rebounds to Auburn's 32.
The Tigers didn't do enough to overcome the negative rebounding margin. Or, should I say, it didn't do enough to capitalize on its quickness, shooting and transitional abilities.
This wasn't a disaster. Auburn finished with a season-high 13 steals, blocked 11 shots, held the Eagles to 1-of-10 shooting from long range during the second half. The effort was there for the most part. What wasn't there was the size and the ability to repel BC's girth in the post. Or the desire to stop (or re-route) BC's dribble penetration from the perimeter.
Here's are the six areas where Auburn failed where it could have thrived Monday:
- Point guards Jared Harper and Ronnie Johnson were black holes in terms of shooting acumen. They combined to go 4-of-18 from the floor Monday night. It was a "regular" bad night for Johnson, but Harper seemed intent on taking three-point shots early in the shot clock. That's not regular. I'm not sure why he kept doing that, but it wasn't productive. Those two guys also combined for just four assists. Auburn had nine assists on 22 buckets in all. Yuck. Not enough work being done on the scoring end.
- Too many panicky shots were taken. I mentioned this with Harper, who was the worst offender, but there were just too many forced shots early in the shot clock. Auburn's average time of possession during the first half was 11 seconds, which is extremely fast. Mustapha Heron finished with one assist and five turnovers. Too fast. Auburn slowed down later in the game, but some damage already was done. "We were clearly out of sync," Pearl said afterward.
- Inside scoring was basically zero. Horace Spencer and LaRon Smith did a whale of a job on the defensive end (eight blocks), but they finished with seven total points. That's not enough considering they embody the entire post offense operation. Every team needs some inside-out play -- and Auburn didn't get much of that at all Monday.
- No TJ Dunans. The guard was said to be out with an illness -- and that's a big loss. Does he play selfishly at times? Absolutely. He also is a fantastic facilitator at times. He's also a fairly good rebounder (for a guard) and his broad base of skills almost always is a benefit. Playing without him meant the top bench guys had to play slightly better to compensate. Auburn got 12 points off the bench.
- No T.J. Lang. He hit a pair of threes in the first half, which stood out since nobody aside from Danjel Purifoy was hitting much of anything. Then Lang went down with what looked like a knee injury -- and the thinned bench took another hit.
- Trouble with ball screens. Pearl mentioned this after the game. Auburn apparently saw a weakness with BC's defense and installed some new stuff involving ball screens. The idea was to take advantage of BC's highly aggressive approach toward defending ball screens by passing out of it. Well, the Tigers didn't do much of that Monday. "We just didn’t execute that, didn’t take advantage of that," Pearl said. That's worth noting.
That's a difficult loss. Boston College came into the game 4-5 with some stinky Ls.
Auburn's next game comes Thursday night at home against Coastal Carolina, which is coached by Cliff Ellis.
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