The undefeated Tigers will return to the court today to face off against their final opponent before the SEC schedule begins. Auburn is coming back from their holiday break, and once again an eight day rest since the last game. Bruce Pearl's squad has looked rusty coming off several of these breaks in the last month alone, but tonight will be another opportunity to prove that these Tigers can come out and put together two efficient halves of offensive basketball against a lesser opponent.
Lipscomb Bisons
5-7 (0-0)
ASUN Conference
#200 Kenpom
#261 Realtime RPI
#218 NET Rankings
Key Team Statistics:
72.7 Points per game (178th nationally)
36.3 Rebounds per game (208th nationally)
13.1 Assists per game (227th nationally)
70.8 Points Allowed per game (223rd nationally)
44.9% FG% as a team
32.3% on 3 point FGs as a team
Key Wins: @ Navy, @Tennessee Tech,
Key Losses: vs MTSU, @ Duquesne, @ Xavier
The Team:
Coach Lennie Acuff is in his first season as head coach of the Bisons after coming over from The University of Alabama in Huntsville where he won eight regular season and three Gulf South Conference tournament championships. His Lipscomb team this year has decent depth, and they play ten guys in the rotation who average at least 10 minutes a contest. Lipscomb plays with an interesting lineup to start their games. They run a 4 guard lineup with a true big body Center down low. The four guards all have good size, with the smallest starting guard coming in at 6'1. The other three take the floor at 6'3, 6'5, and 6'5. This isn't something Auburn will have to worry about too much however, seeing as they have excellent size as well, and Danjel Purifoy and the other rotating forwards for the Tigers have done a good job this season of defending smaller more athletic guards/forwards.
We will see another freshman v senior point guard battle tonight as J'von McCormick will look to handle the leading scorer for the Bison's. KJ Johnson (6'1, 154) is averaging a team high 15.2 points per game on 49% FG shooting. He's also an excellent 3 point shooter cashing in on 37% of his attempts this season. His downside this season has been his inexperience as a true PG against college competition. He's only averaging 1.9 assists per game while turning the ball over 1.5 times a game. Auburn's guards have been great at causing turnovers this season, and I expect that trend to continue tonight seeing as Lipscomb accounts for 14 turnovers a night.
From the outside looking in, the 2-4 positions for the Bisons are interchangeable with the starting rotation. Greg Jones (6'3, 195), Jake Wolfe (6'5, 197) and Michael Buckland (6'5, 197) are the starters at the remaining three guard positions. Of the these three, Buckland is the biggest scoring threat. He averages 9.7 points per game on 50% shooting from the field. He's also been a very efficient three point shooter this season. He currently sits at 41% from 3 on the year. Wolfe and Jones together average another 11 points for the Bisons each game. Jones is the better outside shooter, while Wolfe looks to make most of his opportunities inside the three point line.
Rounding out the starting lineup is the team's leading rebounder and only big body for bulk minutes. Ahsan Asadullah (6'8, 265) is an ATL native who is averaging close to a double double this season. Coming into this game he's averaging 14.7 points and 9.7 rebounds a game. He's a bigger body center that won't look to step out on the perimeter to make plays, but will instead fight for position down low and clean up the offensive glass.
Lipscomb has 5 other guys averaging at least 10 minutes with two of them being forwards who don't start, but can come off the bench to provide some height for an otherwise small ball style lineup. Parker Hazen (6'7, 201) is the first forward off the bench and is only averaging 4.4 points, but has been rather efficient when he does take shots. He's hitting 64% of his field goal attempts. Andrew Fleming (6'5, 205) is the main guard off the bench Auburn will need to pay close attention to. He's the lone bench player averaging close to double digits in the scoring column, and he's also a good outside shooter for the Bisons. On the season he's 48% from the field and 39% from three.
Things to Watch:
Lipscomb is not a great scoring team, but Auburn hasn't been excellent on offense following these layoffs either. Auburn will have a good chance to use their size to play a little closer to the basket and get in and successfully convert on some of these half court sets Bruce wants to run. This is Auburn's last chance to play some competent offense and get some confidence on that end heading into conference play.
Lipscomb has good depth, but again very little scoring/rebounding on the bench. If AU's bigs can get Asadullah into foul trouble, then the Tigers should have no issue dominating the glass and cleaning up second chance points. Austin Wiley is coming off a 15 rebound game against Lehigh, and I look for him to continue his success in this game. He's been exceptional at getting into good position on defenders and drawing fouls, while also grabbing a significant amount of boards he probably wouldn't of gotten last season.
Lipscomb is 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games.
Auburn is currently a 21.5 point favorite and ESPN gives Auburn a 96.3% chance to win today.
Key Matchup:
Danjel Purifoy v. Bison guards
Daniel has been in a slump. There is no denying that. DP will have a size advantage for the majority of this game and that will allow him to have good shot attempts he may not have had in the passed few games. Danjel needs to find another way to be successful when he's not hitting shots, and the only way he's going to do that is to become more aggressive driving and getting to the free throw line. He's been far too passive this season, and when Auburn gets in a rut on offense, he needs to be one of the guys Bruce Pearl can rely on to make some plays and help them create some offense. If he doesn't step up his game, it may be time to give Flanny or Cambridge increased minutes.
Prediction:
I'm beginning to think Auburn may not be a slumping shooting team in the half court, but rather that we just don't have any "great" shooters on this team. Auburn fans, me included, are definitely spoiled from the prolific shooting team we watched last season, and it's looking like we may need to accept that the key to this teams success is not going to be outside shooting. This team is going to grind opponents down and win with defense, turnovers and transition buckets. And that may not be nearly as exciting as going on a 20 point run with 4-5 threes, but this team is going to win some games it may not favored in because of the pure "want too" of this group. All of Auburn's players give 110% every second they're on the floor and Auburn will be successful because of that.
Sorry to get away from the prediction there, but my prediction is Auburn will look a little sluggish on offense again, but they will win handily. Lipscomb will cover.
Auburn - 80
Lipscomb - 63
Game Time:
3:00 CT on SEC Network
