Previewing Auburn's potential opponents

It's tournament time.

After winning the SEC Tournament, Auburn earned the four seed in the east region.

The Tigers will open with Yale, and if it wins that, it will face the winner between San Diego State and UAB.

Let's take a look at each team:

YALE:

Auburn will open its road to Phoenix against the Yale Bulldogs, who won their conference tournament on a buzzer-beater from Matt Knowling.

The Bulldogs are led by their seven-foot center Danny Wolf who averages a near double-double at 14.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game.

Wolf can stretch the floor as he shoots 34 percent on 2.5 attempts from deep.

He also likes to post up as he does it on 19 percent of his possessions, but only averages 0.767 points per possession when he does so which ranks in the 32nd percentile, per Synergy.

"He’s a big kid that’s got real skills," said Bruce Pearl. "He can shoot it. He can put it on the floor. They break pressure with him, he’ll bring the ball up the floor."

Flanking their center are two pure shooters in August Mahoney and John Poulakidas who shoot 46.4 and 39.3 percent from deep, respectively.

Mahoney averages 1.36 points per possession on jump shots, ranking in the 99th percentile per Synergy. Poulakidas isn't on that level, but he puts up 1.12 PPP on jump shots ranking him in the 88th percentile.

"(Mahoney's) probably the best set three-point shooter in college basketball," Pearl said. "He’s a left-hander, he’s got good size. And he’s their third-leading scorer."

Knowling, a 6-foot-5 wing that posts up on just under 34 percent of his possessions, and Bez Mbeng, a throwback style of floor general, round out the Bulldogs' starting five.

In their conference title game, the Bulldogs ran a seven-man rotation with the two players off the bench combining to play 28 minutes and score four points.

In other words, all of the Bulldogs' production comes from their five starters; the opposite of Auburn.

Yale is ranked as the No. 84 team on KenPom and has an adjusted offensive rating of 110.8, No. 91 in the country, and an adjusted defensive rating of 101.3, which is No. 86 in America.

Of note, the Bulldogs have an adjusted tempo that ranks No. 328 in the country and a turnover percentage of 14.1, which is No. 18 in America.

Sound familiar? It's a similar style to South Carolina, a team that the Tigers matched up well with.

UAB:

If Auburn were to win it'd face either San Diego State or UAB.

UAB is a 6.5-point underdog against the Aztecs, but it was also an underdog heading into the AAC Tournament, so that's nothing new for the Blazers.

The Blazers are led by Yaxel Lendeborg, who does a little bit of everything for them.

Lendeborg averages 13.9 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game.

Lendeborg's game has a bit of everything: he has the ability to spot up, which he does on 16 percent of his possessions, and is in the 72nd percentile on catch-and-shoot jump shots.

18 percent of his possessions are spent cleaning up his teammates' misses where he averages 1.159 PPP.

He posts up on 11 percent of his possessions where he averages 1.10 PPP, ranking in the 91st percentile.

Eric Gaines spent two years at LSU before transferring to UAB after Will Wade was fired.

Gaines has been an inefficient shooter all four years he's been in schools, and he's shooting 39.5 percent from the field and 27.5 percent from deep, but that's never stopped him from being a positive offensively.

He has steadily improved as a playmaker this season averaging 5.5 assists per game on an assist rate of 29.8 percent which ranks him No. 68 in the country.

Over 50 percent of Gaines' possessions are him either running the pick-and-roll or pushing the ball in transition. He is in the 54th and 52nd percentile in those areas, respectively.

The Blazers are No. 106 overall on KenPom and have the No. 60 adjusted offensive rating but their adjusted defensive rating is No. 199.

The Blazers do a lot of their offensive work on the glass as they have an offensive rebound rate of 35.3, which ranks No. 22 in the country, and have produced 278 points off of offensive rebounds alone.

UAB struggles defensively and is especially bad at guarding pick-and-rolls and isolations as its defense ranks in the 16th and 21st percentile in those areas, respectively, per Synergy.

SAN DIEGO STATE:

The more likely matchup in the Round of 32 would be against the team that made the national title game a year ago, San Diego State.

The Aztecs returned a decent amount of production from the team that went to the title game and their starting lineup consists of five seniors.

San Diego State isn't a great offensive team as it has an adjusted offensive rating of 113.8, which ranks No. 55 in the country, but it does have an elite offensive player in Jaedon LeDee.

LeDee, a consensus All-American, has taken a leap in his fifth season after being more of a reserve in his first four seasons.

LeDee is averaging 21.1 points and 8.4 rebounds (3.3 offensive) per game on a true shooting of 62.4 percent.

Per Synergy, 29 percent of his offensive possessions are him posting up, and he averages 1.123 PPP when doing so ranking in the 92nd percentile.

He's also an excellent isolation and transition player as he ranks in the 90th and 92nd percentile in those areas, respectively.

And while he doesn't do it often, he also has a spot-up ability as he ranks in the 59th percentile, but he's only shot 39 threes on the season.

LeDee is excellent offensively, but outside of him, the Aztecs struggle mightily on that end. SDSU shoots 31.3 percent from deep which is No. 307 nationally. They do get to the line at a solid rate, but again, that is mostly LeDee who averages 8.7 attempts per game.

So how have they been so good despite the lack of offense? Elite defense.

The Aztecs' defense is what got them to the national title game the season before, and it has been their calling card for the last 14 years.

San Diego State has an adjusted defensive rating of 93.7 which ranks No. 8 in the country.

They don't force an absurd amount of turnovers, rather, the Aztecs sit down and guard and force teams to beat them straight up.

When playing against San Diego State, the average length of possession is 18.3 seconds which is the 26th highest rate in the country.

The Aztecs have held teams to an average of 30.5 percent from deep and 48.3 percent from two which rank No. 21 and 84 nationally, respectively.

The Aztecs are much stronger defending in the half-court than they are defending in transition. Their transition defense ranks in the 66th percentile, which is still good, but not nearly as good as their half-court defense which ranks in the 84th percentile, per Synergy.