Preview: Auburn Tigers vs. Texas A&M Aggies Basketball

After an overtime 104–100 loss in Athens, the Tigers head home to Neville Arena to face the Texas A&M Aggies. This Auburn vs Texas A&M basketball matchup marks a quick turnaround for the Tigers, who are looking to bounce back after a poor defensive showing against the Bulldogs. With 17 games left in SEC play, the conference remains wide open. Auburn has time to become a more cohesive unit and needs to capitalize on the first third of SEC play against weaker opponents.

How to watch:
Date: Tuesday, Jan. 6 | Time: 9:00 PM ET
Location: Neville Arena (Auburn, AL)
TV: ESPN | Live Stream: ESPN+

Georgia did everything in their power to give that game to Auburn. I am still trying to figure out how Auburn was down five with 12 seconds left and managed to send the game to overtime. Regardless, Auburn is going to need to have a short-term memory and move on quickly. It would’ve been great to steal a win on the road, but now the focus has to be on winning the next two home games.

The Good

Filip Jovic. For the first time this season, the team performed better with him on the court instead of KeShawn Murphy. He recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, with nine of those rebounds coming in the second half. Unfortunately, he fouled out in under 30 seconds in overtime. One of the few players on the team with an identity: toughness. Jovic plays “hard as s--t,” in the words of Coach Pearl.

Tahaad Pettiford. After being reprimanded through the removal of his starting role, Pettiford was Auburn’s leading scorer with 25 points, three rebounds, and four assists. Committing his fifth foul in regulation, he was not available in overtime, which could have been the difference.

Elyjah Freeman. Anytime you can get 14 points and five rebounds off the bench is a bonus. Freeman shot 5-for-9 from the floor with two threes.

Honorable mention: Kaden Magwood, who looks to be slowly but surely improving with each game. Although the box score only shows two assists, he didn’t turn the ball over and appears to be limiting his tendency to over-dribble.

The Bad

1-on-1 defense. After being spoiled with Johni Broome, Dylan Cardwell, and Chaney Johnson down low, along with strong perimeter defenders like Denver Jones and even Miles Kelly, it’s hard to watch this team play defense. Auburn is now missing both outside and interior defenders, with KeShawn Murphy being the exception.

The team put up no resistance to Georgia’s blow-bys. Once Georgia found that weakness, it was exploited time and time again. If low-effort defense is going to be a mainstay this season, Auburn is going to lose several games to opponents worse than Georgia. Texas A&M runs a similar, fast-paced offense as well, and Auburn only has a few short days to learn how to stay in front of their assignment.

The obvious elephant in the room is the lack of another big defender — a rim protector. However, that does not excuse the poor perimeter defense by Auburn’s guards and wings. Coach Pearl had this to say about Auburn’s defensive performance:

“I'm always going to figure out what I can do better,” Pearl said. “But my team's got to do a better job of finding out their identity defensively and taking some accountability in their 1-on-1 defense — because I can't go out there and guard for them.”

Another continuing issue with this team is the selfish play from Pettiford, Keyshawn Hall, and even Kevin Overton at times. They want to get their offensive production in place and then call it a day. If they can shift even a small percentage of their focus from offense to defense, Auburn would be in a much better position in conference play.

Poor free-throw shooting also continues to plague this team. Auburn made just 24-of-36 free throws against Georgia (67%). The Tigers are also going to have to do better from deep, shooting just 27% in that game and making only 8-of-30 from beyond the arc.

Texas A&M Matchup

The Aggies play a similar style to Georgia: fast-paced basketball built on ball movement and quick possessions. Dubbed “Bucky Ball,” the approach is named after first-year head coach Bucky McMillan.

Led by Ruben Dominguez, Texas A&M leans heavily on guard play. The Aggies are shooting threes at a higher rate than any other team in the conference at 38.2% and rank fourth nationally in points per game at 96.2. Auburn will have to contain them on the perimeter — something this team has struggled with.

A boon for Auburn is that heavy guard play often comes with small-ball lineups, and similar to the Tigers, Texas A&M lacks a true size advantage. Lazy defense isn’t going to cut it regardless of size, however. The Aggies may not have shooters across the board like Georgia does, but they are going to score. Locking down Dominguez, who is shooting nearly 47% from beyond the arc, will be pivotal if Auburn wants to stay undefeated at home.

Final Thoughts and Prediction

As mentioned earlier, there are still 17 games left in conference play. Auburn’s schedule over the next five SEC games is as manageable as it’s going to get, and the Tigers will need to take care of business at home against the Aggies.

For what it’s worth, I agree with Coach Pearl’s punitive measures against Pettiford. He’s the only holdover from last season, and you can’t give the impression to players like Jovic, Williams-Adams, and the rest of the new faces that anything less than upstanding behavior is acceptable. Pearl may have let behavior like that slide last year, but that roster was older, more mature, and better equipped to handle situations when teammates like Chad Baker-Mazara acted up.

This isn’t last year’s roster, so expectations need to be tempered. Still, this is not a bad team by any stretch. Coach Pearl is a defensive-minded coach, and I’m hopeful that the emphasis on playing both sides of the ball will eventually stick with this group.

My prediction:
Auburn 86, Texas A&M 82