Auburn preparing for classic Ivy League offense

Ivy League offenses in the tournament are never an easy cover.

It's been proven time and time again with the most recent example being Princeton upsetting Arizona in the 2023 tournament.

The Ivy schools run unique offenses, and it's something that most schools aren't used to.

"They're really, really hard to cover," said Bruce Pearl. "With their five-out offense -- it's a unique offense and it's something that we see some but don't see a ton."

Heading the Yale attack is seven-footer Danny Wolf, a stretch big that can run the floor and handle the ball in a pinch.

Wolf struggles with traditional center responsibilities as averages just 0.767 points per possession on post-up chances ranking him in the 33rd percentile.

He does, however, thrive working out of the pick-and-roll and pop.

On the season, he has attempted 58 catch-and-shoot looks and made 24 of them.

He is also prolific as a roller off of pick-and-rolls averaging 1.44 points per possession off of dives to the basket ranking him in the 93rd percentile, per Synergy.

“Tough cover,” said Dylan Cardwell. “He's kind of like a unicorn cover. I haven't seen a guy like him in my college days, and I've been here for a minute. I'm very excited to showcase my skills as a defender and compete against somebody so good.”

As a team, the Bulldogs are an average three-point shooting team as they shoot just under 35 percent from deep, but they do have two elite shooters in August Mahoney and John Poulakidas.

In Yale's last 13 games, Mahoney is shooting 53.4 percent from deep on 5.6 attempts and has a true shooting of 76.6 percent in that span.

Mahoney is more of a catch-and-shoot player than a self creator as 125 of his 153 attempts from deep this season have come off of spot-up looks.

And he's been phenomenal there averaging 1.44 PPP on catch-and-shoot threes ranking in the 99th percentile.

"Mahoney — he’s probably the best set three-point shooter in college basketball," said Bruce Pearl. "He’s a left-hander, he’s got good size."

Poulakidas isn't the shooter Mahoney is, but he has more all-around ability than Mahoney has.

Poulakidas shoots 41.5 percent on catch-and-shoot looks ranking him in the 88th percentile, per Synergy, but he struggles when creating for himself as his percentage drops to 32.7 percent on off-the-dribble looks.

Poulakidas is more of a ball handler than Mahoney with a usage rate of 20.8 compared to Mahoney's 16.6.

When operating the pick-and-roll, Poulakidas produces one point per possession ranking him in the 90th percentile.

A key to stopping those two? Showing them pressure, which is exactly what Auburn plans to do.

“We’ve got to stay pressed up,” said Chris Moore. “Make them activate their dribbles, and really force them to make tough decisions that they don’t usually make. I think it’s all about ball pressure. Ball pressure is going to be the key to this game.”

Matt Knowling is a unique player.

Knowling is just 6-foot-5 and 185 pounds, yet despite that, 33.6 percent of his possessions are him posting up, and he's good at it, too, as he averages 1.041 PPP on his post-ups ranking him in the 84th percentile.

Rounding out the Bulldog starting five is point guard Bez Mbeng.

Mbeng is a throwback, facilitating point guard who averages 4.2 assists per game and has an assist rate of 22.9.

Mbeng is a poor shooter as he shoots 24 percent from deep on four attempts per game and shoots 69 percent from the line.

For Auburn, the key is simple: just keep on keeping on.

In the SEC Tournament, held Mississippi State to 3-of-15 from deep and held Florida to 1-of-13 the following day.

The Tigers were able to run Zyon Pullin, Will Richard and Walter Clayton off of the three-point line by switching everything 1-4 while overwhelming them with their athleticism.

If they can do that again, they'll be fine.

“The way we guard, I feel like if we just give all-out effort and energy then we can bother what they run and run them off the line and take away their strengths,” said Aden Holloway. “We just have to lock into what we do as a team and we’ll be good.”

With that said, Yale does have the talent to stay in a game, and Auburn knows that and expects a battle on Friday at 3:15 CT on TNT.

"They're a pretty talented team, I'll put it there," said Chaney Johnson. "We can't sleep on them because they wouldn't have made it here if they weren't a good team, so we've got to take them like they take anybody else."