Auburn Basketball Tops UNC Asheville in Neutral Site Game; Addressing the "Controversy"

Auburn travelled accross the state to Huntsville to take on UNC Asheville yesterday, and they left the Auburn faithful satisfied, beating the Bulldogs 87-62. Bruce Pearl had mentioned this maybe being a trap game, but I wasn't buying it. The "neutral site" turned into just another home game for Auburn, and while UNC Asheville does have some good talent, they were no match for Auburn's speed and depth.

The game was tied 21-21 early in the first half, which I expected. There's usually a bit of a "hangover" period coming off big wins like the one over Indiana on Saturday. After the intial punch from UNC Asheville, it was all Auburn.

As always, here's some notes from this one...

-Auburn didn't have a single starter score double digits. Is this cause for concern? Absolutely not. In fact, this is awesome. We had basically everyone that got considerable minutes score somewhere between 5-9 points, and the only two guys in double figures came off the bench. This is a recipe for success. Spreading out your scoring like this will spread the defense out, because each defender has to focus on his matchup. This balance makes it MUCH easier to run the offense, since the defense is spread out and unable to focus too much attention on one guy. I hope the box score looks like this every game.

-Johni had another slow night. Only six points on 2-3 shooting. This does not concern me UNLESS it concerns him. Confidence is everything in basketball, so I really hope these subpar performances are not causing him to lose that killer mentality. I don't think they will. I'm sure he understands that there will be many games in the future where we NEED him to step up and be "the guy." In fact, USC will probably be one of those games since they have some quick guards that are tough to score on.

-Aden Holloway had a tough night shooting the ball, but I'm already loving the way his game is progressing. Early in the year, he struggled with forcing the ball ahead in transition, and I am already seeing him make better decisions in that aspect of the game. He's now playing at a fast but controlled pace. With the way we like to run, it is important that we have guards that know how to play under control in transition, and I think Aden and Tre both are capable of doing so.

-I think Chad-Baker Mazara is beginning to find his way with this team. We knew coming in that he would bring experience and high-level shooting. He's shooting it well from three, and I'm also liking his ability to score in the mid-range area. He plays a little out of control around the basket sometimes, but outside of that, I'm thinking he brings great versatility to this team. His contributions on both ends of the floor cannot be ignored.

-I have to give a shotout to the entire team for the improvements we've made on the glass. It seemed like I was calling us out every game early on for our lack of commitment to defensive rebounding. We have since turned a corner. UNC Asheville finished with only four offensive rebounds last night, and Auburn finished +10 on the glass overall.

Auburn handled business last night. Sunday against USC will be a HUGE game. The arena will be packed, and there will be a bunch of blue-chip football recruits in the building. It is important that we show out and show them a good time. USC is a talented team, and they will test our ability to defend without fouling. They are quick, and we will have to figure out a way to move our feet and stay in front without using our hands. I do expect us to win this one, but it will not come easy. Auburn is going to need to bring their A-game.

I will quickly address the controversy that arose yesterday. Journalist Dan Wolken released an article about the allegations of Auburn filming an opponent's walkthrough practice back in 2018. There was apparently a meeting involving multiple SEC coaches after the incident, and when the coaches were asked to speak up about the incident, nobody said a word. Nobody should be concerned in the slightest. This is nothing more than a journalist looking for clicks. Dan Wolken has attacked Bruce Pearl many times on social media, so anything he writes about Auburn should be taken with a grain of salt. The only thing this article did was move the line from Auburn -16.5 to Auburn -19.5 against UNC Asheville. Thanks for the extra motivation, Dan.