Auburn basketball is getting back in the swing of things Saturday at LSU after an unanticipated break with Tuesday’s game against Mississippi State being postponed due to weather.
The Tigers jump right into the heat of things with LSU, who’s 13-6 and 8-4 in the SEC, boasting the league’s second-best scoring offense averaging 82 points per game.
LSU’s Javonte Smart, Trendon Watford and Darius Days all score in double-digits, with freshman Cameron Thomas leading the SEC with 22.6 points per game.
“LSU is a terrific offensive team. They’re sixth in the country in offensive efficiency. They’re third in the league in scoring, second in free-throw percentage,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Cam Thomas is the fourth-leading scorer in the country, first in the SEC. They’ve got four monster offensive players in Smart, Thomas, Watford and Days. Those four guys are as good as anybody in the country together offensively. Will Wade is a brilliant offensive strategist and those guys get really good looks. They don’t turn the ball over. They play at a nice tempo, a nice pace and they get shots off.”
Limiting those four will be the key for Pearl and Auburn on Saturday.
Auburn obviously didn’t plan for having a week off, making them alter the past week’s practice schedule.
“Well we, if we had known we had sort of a bye week, I think we would have approached it a little differently,” Pearl said. “We would not have practiced on Sunday and then taken Monday off which sort of was just really weird. So we spent Saturday and Sunday and Monday preparing for Mississippi State, and then kind of find out we're going to be playing LSU and then we've got to get the team ready for LSU. So then we got to quickly get the staff together and begin to drill down a little bit on LSU, two really different teams.”
However, Pearl believes the week provided some valuable time off for his team.
“But we got a chance to work on us a little bit this week, which was good,” Pearl said. “Kids got a chance to get caught up a little bit academically I think, which was good.”
Auburn and LSU tip-off Saturday, in Baton Rouge at 3 p.m. CST with the game available to watch on ESPN.
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