John Reed/USA TODAY Sports
AUBURN (18-1, 6-0) at LSU (12-7, 1-5)
SEC Network, 6 p.m. CST
• THE CASE FOR LSU: They have good athletes and are 10-1 at home this season. Cam Carter, who transferred in from Kansas State, is a very good shooting guard averaging 17 points per game. Point guard Jordan Sears, who transferred in from Tennessee-Martin, is good. He's a drive-and-dish guy. This is a good backcourt. I'd give them a B/B+ grade.
• THE CASE AGAINST LSU: All in all, I don't see a lot of skill on the floor for LSU. I see athletes. They don't score much. They turn the ball over a lot. They don't shoot the 3 well at all. Though they're bouncy at 2-5, they're actually not very tall and their defensive rebounding is between "not great" and "poor." Nine of their 10 home wins were against weak opponents. The one good win was against Florida State, which is now 4-5 in ACC play.
• WHY IS THIS GAME INTRIGUING?
Auburn went toe-to-toe with Tennessee inside Neville Arena last weekend and prevailed — albeit narrowly. Casual fans will point to UT's home loss to Kentucky last night and the team's 4-4 league record and deduce that the Tigers' 53-51 win actually is a reason for concern. Look, that's a terrible take. Tennessee has two of the nation's best defense players in Zakai Ziegler and Jahmai Mashack. They were geared up for that showdown. They played their best game and still lost. Auburn was up to the challenge and accomplished just enough.
You play the game to win the game. Period.
Now comes this game at LSU, which surely will tempt some Tigers to take it less seriously. LSU has basically zero hype and that Tennessee game felt like an Elite Eight battle. No team can play at its best every night, of course, so you burn and conserve over the course of a season. You choose your spots.
You just hope, as a coach, that your guys can respond when the situation demands it. The good news for Bruce Pearl is that he's fielding one of the nation's most experienced teams with guys who has spent a lot of time playing for him. When BP gets serious about balling up, he has a different tone, a different look. The long-term vets like Broome and Dylan and C-Mo know the difference and they raise their level. But we're now at a point where Chad and Denver are vets, too, and they know. Miles Kelly has played a lot of ball. He knows. I'd argue that Tahaad knows just because he's built differently.
Maybe Auburn will go out there tonight and bulldoze LSU. We've seen that several times recently — most notably against Mississippi State and Missouri. Those games were at home, however, and the Tigers' road games have been much tighter. That makes sense considering we're talking about the No. 1 team; Auburn provides almost every opponent the chance at a season-defining win. LSU certainly falls into that category. They'll want this one.
If Auburn doesn't bulldoze LSU, how will it respond? How will it put the game away? Will it fumble around like it did at Georgia and Texas? Will it grind things out forcefully as it did against South Carolina? We're always looking for signs of improvement. Tucking away road games is one skill Auburn hasn't demonstrated frequently this season — at least so far.
Tonight can be instructional.
