AUBURN | When Sharife Cooper was ruled eligible three games ago, it meant one of Auburn’s players had to give up his starting role.

Devan Cambridge volunteered and it turned out taking that one step backwards has allowed him to take more than a couple of steps forward.

“Look, nobody wants to step out of the starting lineup,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “He knew Sharife belonged and he was AAU teammates on the Nike circuit with AOT, and Jamal, Al, and Devan all volunteered. I made the decision to let Devan really have the honor of giving his friend and one of our leaders an opportunity. And to Devan’s credit, he’s come back from break, and he’s been very focused.”

Cambridge has had his best stretch as an Auburn player since Cooper moved into the starting lineup and he became the sixth man. He’s averaged 12.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.3 blocked shots and 1.7 steals in the three games. He’s shot 62.5 percent from the floor and made 5 of 12 3-pointers (41.7%).

In his previous 11 games, Cambridge averaged 7.4 points, 3.7 rebounds, 0.7 steals and didn’t have a blocked shot. He was shooting 31.8 percent from the floor and just 26.2 percent from beyond the arc.

“To have those big games, I’m excited,” Cambridge said. “I’m planning on keep doing that with Sharife.”

It hasn’t just been Cambridge that’s flourished with Cooper at point guard. Allen Flanigan scored a career-high 21 points in Saturday’s win over Kentucky. JT Thor had 15 points and nice rebounds, both career highs, in a tight loss to Alabama.

The Tigers have averaged 83.7 points in Cooper’s three games after averaging 74.4 in the first 11. After starting SEC play 0-3, AU is 2-1 with Cooper at point.

“That's what we've been waiting for is a true point guard,” Cambridge said. “He's very unselfish. He's going to find me. Like, he makes my game a lot easier. He's makes me look 10 times better, and he's going to find everybody. He's very unselfish. He's going to get the job done and do what he needs to do.”

Auburn is back in action Wednesday night at Arkansas. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network.