One of the biggest weaknesses for Auburn basketball last season was its shooting, especially beyond the arc, where the Tigers shot just 31.4 percent. So when Bruce Pearl met with the media on Monday prior to the Bruce, Barkley and Basketball Golf Classic at Grand National Golf Course, he had some good news and some bad news.
In the first intrasquad scrimmage of practice, Auburn shot the ball well. In fact, the stats were much better than anything the Tigers could put out last year. They shot 55 percent from the floor, including 50 percent from three, which pleased Pearl. That was definitely the good news.
The bad news?
"The bad news is we did it against ourselves, which means we couldn't guard anybody," Pearl said. "So I don't know whether it'd be happy because the offense scored or angry because we didn't make enough defensive plays and didn't show enough speed and athleticism to bother us to bother ourselves."
Pearl's squad has seven newcomers on its roster, including seemingly an upgrade at the guard position with the additions of Denver Jones, Chaney Johnson and Chad Baker-Mazara, who all stand 6-foot-4 or taller. Add them to the mix of true freshman Aden Holloway, Jaylin Williams, Tre Donaldson and others, the Tigers will have, in Pearl's mind, four guys on the floor at all times that can light it up from distance. That's a good problem to have, but it is still a problem.
"The bad news is that they're all wanting to shoot it then we're not getting inside enough," Pearl said. "We're not getting into the rim enough. We're not getting to the foul line enough. And inside shots typically give you inside rebounds. These will be long shots, long rebounds ... At the same time, it does open the lane up a little bit, and we need that because I'd like to see us have a little bit more of our guys being able to break their man down and get to the rim."
The first scrimmage also gave Holloway, the highest-ranked recruit next to Jabari Smith to ever commit to Auburn, to showcase his skills. And while Pearl is happy with his shooting, the freshman has to work on some things to become an overall point guard.
"He's got to continue to do a better job to be a better playmaker," Pearl said of Holloway. "And it is, again, what happens is players should go to their strengths. So I'm going to want Aden's scoring because that's what he does really well offensively. I want him to improve as a passer. It'll make us better; it'll make him better."