Auburn Basketball Tramples Indiana

Less than a week after losing to Appalachian State on the road, Auburn traveled to Atlanta to take on Indiana for the "Holiday Hoopsgiving" event. Auburn rose to the occasion and steamrolled Indiana by the final score of 104 (!!) - 76. While I expected to win this one, I certainly did not expect to put up triple digits and win by 30. After the initial run from Indiana, it was all Auburn.

It's been a busy week, so I did not have time to write about the App State game, but I will say this: That loss is not as bad as it looks on paper. App State has a good team, and the environment for that game was absolutely electric. Those two factors, along with an atrocious shooting night from Auburn (3-27 from three, 9-19 from the free-throw line), led to Auburn's defeat. It's a game that I wanted and expected to win, but the loss is not as disappointing as most people think.

I've got a few notes from the Indiana game, and then I'll discuss the upcoming weeks...

-Auburn played just about as good as they possibly could have. There are really no negatives from this one. Johni Broome only had two points, which I guess could be seen as a negative. Honestly, that is more of a positive in my eyes. The fact that we won a game by almost 30 against a good opponent with our star player only putting up two points is very promising. I believe that speaks to the depth of this team. It is important come tournament time that you have multiple scoring options, because it is highly unlikely that one guy will be able to carry the load for six straight games. When one guy is off, you need another guy that can pick up his slack, and I think Auburn has four or five guys that could go for 20 points on any given night.

-Chaney Johnson can be a great depth piece for this team IF he can learn how to defend without fouling. He played seven minutes and had four fouls. He's a great athlete; he just plays way too handsy on defense. Just stay in front of your guy and force a tough shot. I know he is capable. He just has to be a little more disciplined on that side of the ball.

-I've loved the improvements we've made rebounding the ball lately. Auburn outrebounded both App State and Indiana. Indiana hangs their hat on their big men, so I expected them to give us fits on the glass. Our guys combated that with good box outs and good crashes, holding them to only 8 offensive rebounds. If we can commit to rebounding like this every game, we will do great things as a team.

-This team is at its best when Jaylin Williams is playing aggressive offensively. He posted 24 points on Saturday, along with 7 assists and 6 rebounds. This stat line was good enough to earn him SEC Player of the Week honors. He is a big X-factor on this team. He puts up 6 against App State, we lose. He follows that up with 24 against Indiana, we win by 30. We need him to be in double figures just about every night.

-Auburn finished with 25 assists and only 3 (!!!) turnovers. This was a textbook performance on the offensive side of the ball. We will win out our non-conference slate if we keep this up.

-Aden Holloway. Buy stock now.

-Tre Donaldson is very underrated off the bench. He shoots the ball efficiently, rebounds well, and, most importantly, takes care of the basketball. He's averaging 1.6 turnovers a game so far this year, but I expect this number to quickly fall as we head into conference play. He averaged only 0.6 per game last year, so he has proven that he can handle the ball well.

This team has the potential to do great things. As long as we keep the App State-like performances to a minimum, we will win plenty of games this year. This win against Indiana is a great resume-booster.

We have games against UNC Asheville, USC, Alabama State, Chattanooga, and Penn before heading into conference play. We will be favored in each of these, but that does not mean that they will be gimme's. USC is off to a slow start, and they will travel to Auburn looking for a statement win to get them back in the mix. They are loaded with talent, and with Bronny James returning, I expect them to be a tough task. Penn is also a sneaky good team. They gave Kentucky a fit on Saturday. They play good basketball. If we don't take them seriously, we could easily end up with another App State situation on our hands, and one of those type losses is more than enough. We need to handle business and carry some momentum into conference play.