Pearl sees strength at the wing position

AUBURN | Bruce Pearl has a lot more to work with in his third year at Auburn.

The Tigers can go at least 10 deep in the playing rotation, which will give Pearl much more flexibility when it comes to starting lineups, substitutions, pressing on defense and running an up-tempo offense.

“We're fast, we're athletic, we shoot it pretty well, we're deep and I'm hoping that our style of play will bother opponents,” Pearl said. “But we've got to gang tackle, we've got to gang rebound. If we can shore some of that up, I think we're off to a pretty good start.”

The strength of this year’s team is probably at the wing (2 and 3) where Pearl can rotate four players at two interchangeable positions.

“There is no different between our 2 and 3 positions. They're identical,” Pearl said. The only difference might be which guy would play in the back line of a zone. One runs to one side of the floor and one runs on the other side of the floor.

“We've got four good players that are competing at those positions. They all do different things.”

Two veteran wings return in senior T.J. Dunans and junior TJ Lang. Dunans, who missed 15 games with an injury last year, averaged 11.6 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per game.

Lang averaged 7.1 points, making 48-of-119 (40.3 percent) from 3-point range.

“Dunans is the best breakdown guy,” Pearl said. “His teams seem to win because he makes lots of plays. Lang is the best open shooter. He's got the best size. He knows the defense the best.”

Bryce Brown returns after averaging 10.1 points per game as a true freshman last season and making a team-high 78 3-pointers. Added to the mix is five-star signee Mustapha Heron.

“All-around, Mustapha does a little bit of everything and has got a physical presence, especially getting to the rim,” Pearl said. “Bryce is the best shooter and probably the best on-the-ball defender.

“They've all got elements. They can all play. I'm waiting for a little bit more separation between them.”

Arguably the team’s best overall player, Danjel Purifoy, can also play the wing but is expected to work at the 4 position along with true freshman Anfernee McLemore, which should be another area of strength.

“Danjel playing at the four spot, it's going to be really hard for people to guard that in a lot of the things we do,” Pearl said. “We're scoring well over 100 right now in every 40-minute-type scrimmage we're having.”

Graduate transfer Ronnie Johnson and true freshman Jared Harper are rotating at point guard while sophomore Horace Spencer and graduate transfer LaRon Smith are working at the 5 position.

Sophomore guard New Williams looks to be the 11th man in the rotation after a couple of weeks of preseason practice.

“It’s great to know that whatever happens, if you’re having a bad game, bad couple stretch of games, you have somebody behind you that’s just as good that’s coming in ready to play,” Lang said. “We have two guys, two to three guys at every position that’s like that, so we’re really going to wear other teams down.

“They’re going to play six to seven guys and we’re going to play 10. I feel like we’re going to win a lot of games that way.”