On Friday night Auburn (1-0) will face off with the USF Bulls (0-1) for the second time in as many seasons. The Bulls will come into Neville Arena following a heartbreaking loss in their season opener to Southeastern Missouri State. A game in which USF shot 21% from 3, 47% from the FT line and were out-rebounded by their fearsome foe from the OVC. Head Coach Brian Gregory enters his sixth season at the helm of USF after previously serving as HC at Dayton and Georgia Tech. He has amassed over 300 head coaching wins in his career, and is still working to turn around a program that has recently dwelled in the cellar of the AAC. He has a revamped roster from the one Auburn faced last year in Tampa, and he's hoping to get a little more consistency out of his offense this season after coming off a year where his offense ranked towards the bottom of the NCAA D1 list in almost every category.
In the opener, Gregory played 12 guys. with 8-9 eating up bulk minutes. Their game plan on Friday will start and end with their new starting point guard Tyler Harris. Harris is a transfer who has up to this point played at Memphis and Iowa State. His game will look similar to Wen Green's last season. He's a 5'9 ball handler whose going to take a lot of shots, he'll make some highlight worthy passes, and he'll have some boneheaded turnovers. Off stats alone, he's arguably their best outside shooting threat after posting a 39% clip from 3 last season. Another transfer for CBG's squad is someone Auburn is familiar with. Keyshawn Bryant transferred too USF after playing the last four seasons at South Carolina under coach Frank Martin. He''ll start at PF at only 6'6 but he is arguably the Bulls best playmaker. He scored 19 points on 3-5 shooting from outside in their opener, although statistically he hasn't been an outside threat to this point in his career. He'll see a familiar face across from him as Al will more than likely be charged with shutting him down tomorrow. Russel Tchewa stands 7'0 and weighs 280 pounds. He is from Cameroon and has not been playing basketball for nearly as long as most of his teammates, but he began to put his game together towards the end of last season when he averaged 11 ppg and 7 rbg over their final 9 games. We'll have another interesting matchup to watch in the paint between the larger Tchewa and the more skilled Johni Broome.
The rest of their starting lineup is rounded out with Kansas State transfer Selton Miguel at SG, and returning starter Jamir Chaplin at SF. At 6'4 and 6'6 respectively, they'll have decent size at the guard positions, but will be undersized at forward. They will play 11-12 guys by the end of the game, but their key reserves include Freshman Ryan Conwell who they expect to bring a boost to their scoring this season, and Corey Walker Jr. who started 12 games for them last season.
The one thing Gregory's team did well last season was limit opponent's scoring. Their team that only finished with 8 wins held last year's Auburn squad to 58 points in Tampa. However, that game wasn't played in the Clam in front of 9,000 raucous fans. It is a safe bet that every team Auburn plays will game plan them in roughly the same way, make the guards beat you. Auburn has struggled to generate offense when teams slow them down and force them into their half court sets. Wendell Green will have to be diligent in setting up the O and getting good looks for his guys. Auburn is also coming off relatively poor shooting performance against George Mason, so it's to be determined if this team can knock down some of the open shots they're able to create.
I expect pain for USF in this game. Auburn was a little lethargic coming off a week where several guys dealt with the flu bug. This USF team is not good on the offensive side of the ball, and they are about to face a much tougher defense than what SEMO put on the court against them in their opener. Tchewe is a big body, but I don't think he's capable of slowing down Broome in the paint. Auburn needs to take advantage of having the more athletic big down low and let him go to work against a slower, less agile center. George Mason had a noticeable size advantage at PG/SG, but Auburn's guards are so tenacious on D that it all but eliminates that disparity. I expect a similar performance against a much less proficient O. KD/AL/Zep will create havoc, and USF will not handle it well. SEMO was down with 3 minutes left when they began pressing USF and they did not manage it successfully. I foresee Bruce and co. using this game as an opportunity to work on our 3/4 and full court pressure, and Auburn will create plenty of TOs leading to easy runouts. Early lines are showing Auburn -20. Take the Tigers and the points.
AU - 79
USF - 56
