AUBURN | In two full games without Johni Broome, Auburn has averaged 8.0 assists. In the 16 previous games, the top-ranked Tigers averaged 18.1.

Auburn likes to run it’s offense through Broome. The All-American often draws double-teams and has the ability to quickly find an open player.

“You’re missing a big playmaking part of our offense. A lot of the baskets that we get are from Johni’s passing,” said AU coach Bruce Pearl.

Even with the missed games, Broome still leads Auburn with 52 assists.

He injured his ankle in the second half of a 66-63 win at South Carolina Jan. 11, and then missed an 88-66 win over No. 15 Mississippi State at home and a 70-68 win at No. 23 Georgia last Saturday.

Broome has had a week off to rehab his ankle and is a possibility to return for Saturday’s home game against No. 6 Tennessee, which Pearl described as one of the nation’s best and most physical defensive teams.

“It’ll make it harder to score because you can throw the ball into Johni, you get buckets and you can play inside-out basketball if they double. Obviously, if we don’t have that, you’ve got to find other ways to score,” said Pearl.

The Tigers found ways to do that against both MSU and UGA. And Pearl insisted that the lack of assists doesn’t mean that AU’s players are working outside of the offensive plan.

“A lot just depends on how we’re being guarded,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re not sharing the ball. We didn’t make as many baskets (at UGA). So therefore we had fewer assists.”

Tip-off at Neville Arena is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.