How Auburn broke down Washington
Bruce Pearl and Auburn have a knack for destroying 2-3 zones.
The Tigers, led by Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome, carved up Washington’s defense practically all night en route to an 84-61 win in Seattle.
It took the Tigers about five minutes to actually start scoring, but once they started, they never stopped.
Here is a look at how Auburn had its success against Washington and its zone defense:
Zone busters
The Huskies ran a zone on 77 percent of their half-court possessions (per Synergy).
Sometimes it was a 2-3 and other times it was a matchup zone, but the objective remained the same for Auburn: have the bigs find space and run the offense through them.
An effective way to face a zone is to get the ball to the elbow/free throw area and run offense from there because of the abundance of open space.
Jaylin Williams killed Georgia State's zone by doing that and it was Johni Broome's turn to kill a zone from that area.
Washington's center has to stay "home" which gave Broome a bunch of space to hit push shots all night. It's how he finished with 18 points.
Auburn was patient with its ball movement.
The Tigers racked up 22 assists on Wednesday, the most Auburn has had in a game thus far.
The game plan was to run through the bigs. It's easy to want to lob inside immediately, but the Tigers were poised and patient and waited for their bigs to come open before making the pass inside.
Watch how many passes Auburn makes before Williams gets it inside and then watch his little two-man action with Dylan Cardwell to get a better shot than he would've had.
Smart basketball from all five guys.
Johni Jokic
Broome had lots of breathing room for the most part, but when the defense crashed on him, he made the right play.
Broome finished the night with five assists, which is tied for his career high.
Broome's two-man game with Chris Moore was excellent all night.
In the first clip, all eyes are on Broome, so Moore stops his deep cut at the block and waits for the defense to crash and Broome is able to hit him for a reverse layup.
The second one, Moore's defender has to rotate over to stop Broome's spin and Broome is able to compose himself and hit a wide-open Moore in the corner.
This is a trend that can make Auburn dangerous. If Broome is finishing consistently, then the defense will be given the choice of leaving him one on one or leaving someone open.
Pick your poison.
This is the alternative to the defense crashing on Broome.
Broome's finishing has been poor to start the season, but part of it has been Auburn's mediocre spacing. That wasn't an issue against the Huskies.
Auburn is 4-out-1-in here as Washington's defenders are being forced to respect each Auburn perimeter player.
This gave Broome all the space he needs to finish.
Rebounding dominance
The Tigers flipped their own script on this west coast road trip by dominating both USC and Washington on the glass.
Auburn outrebounded the Trojans 32-19 on Sunday and did the same to the Huskies with a 42-24 margin on the glass.
A risk with running zone is that they are susceptible to offensive rebounds.
Auburn had the size to make the Huskies pay for that and did by snagging 11 offensive boards and scoring 15 points off of those rebounds.
Rebounding has been a problem for Auburn, especially on the defensive end, but the Tigers showed life on both rebounding ends against the PAC-12 schools.
The rebounding battle is going to swing games for Auburn and could be the difference between a 12-6 conference campaign or a 9-9 one.
RUN FOREST RUN
Auburn ran in transition on 15 of its 81 possesions, which is only 18.5 percent and below its season average, but was effective when it did run.
The Tigers put up 1.267 points per possession when running and put up 19 points in total in transition.
Wendell Green has been the catalyst for Auburn's transition game all season and was good on Wednesday. But it was Tre Donaldson who pushed pace often and it led to him totaling a career-high seven assists.
When Donaldson grabs a rebound he's looking to run, as is Broome.
"Everybody wants a spoon-fed basket," Broome said. "That just gets you going, just seeing the ball go in the basket. That's the best way start a game off."
Broome is an excellent transition player as he is putting up 1.5 points per possession in transition this season which ranks in the 94th percentile.
This one was actually after a made basket from Washington.
The Tigers, led by Donaldson, are running instantly, and Johni Broome is wide open under the basket as a result of that.
Even when teams are scoring, Auburn has the personnel to keep them off balance due to its ability to run.
CLAMPED
Auburn's defense seemed to have a bit of a resurgence after an underwhelming three-game stretch.
The Tigers only allowed 61 points on Wednesday while holding the Huskies to a putrid 0.78 points per possession.
Washington shot just 36 percent from the field and shot 7-33 in the first half.
Auburn didn't have a massive block game as this of one of two shots that it blocked on the night, but it was still an excellent rim protection night for the Tigers.
Auburn muddied up the paint and dared the Huskies to beat them from outside.
Washington shot 5-20 from beyond the arc which led to long rebounds and Auburn being able to run like it wants to.
Overall, a dominant night for the Tigers in their best win of the season.