Auburn's 115-109 loss to UConn had a little bit of everything.
From a big run in the first half to UConn punching back, a late comeback in the second half and two overtimes, Bruce Pearl learned a lot about his team on Wednesday. It was the exact kind of test Pearl wanted for his team.
Three takeaways from the game:
This Auburn team is never out of games
Young teams sometimes lack mental toughness. They get down in games and fold. That is the opposite of this Auburn team.
This is a team that will never fold and never gives up on a game. Auburn was down 15 in the second half. It was even down 109-100 with 53 seconds left in double-overtime and fought back to make it a 113-109 game with 20 seconds left.
Now, the final Jabari Smith bucket didn't fall and then UConn went on to go hit two game-sealing free throws, but the point about this team and its fight stands.
There's a couple of reasons Auburn can never be counted out of any of its games.
First, the defensive tenacity of this team cannot be underestimated. Issues popped up against UConn — we'll get to one of those in the next takeaway, actually — but Auburn excels defensively. Auburn had 13 steals, including five from K.D. Johnson, and forced UConn into 24 turnovers. A couple of steals and some fastbreak points helped Auburn get momentum in the second half and make the comeback.
And second is the takeover ability the players on Auburn have. Wendell Green did it early in the game. Jabari Smith came out of his shell late in the second half. K.D. Johnson was doing his thing for the last 30 minutes of the game. This team has players that can flip a switch and takeover games. That'll help them big time when they're down in games.
Second half defensive adjustments were good... more still need to be made
Auburn was getting torched in the first half and Adama Sanogo was a big part of that. Auburn put Walker Kessler on Sanogo and allowed him to go one-on-one with him. Sanogo put up 12 points in the first half and shot 6-for-8.
After half Auburn tried some different looks and started using its guard to help Kessler out when Sanogo initially caught the pass. It forced the big man into some turnovers and caused a little more chaos.
The Tigers opted for some zone schemes and that ended up being big, too, in limiting UConn's second half success.
One issue that still needs to be corrected, though, is making life more difficult on the opposing big man. Sanogo was able to catch the ball mostly on the block and relatively uncontested. Kessler or the other Auburn defender doesn't need to sell out for a steal, but they should make it more difficult to catch the pass. And the location of the catch needs to be altered, too. Opposing centers should not be catching the ball at the block. They should be catching it more so at the free throw line and being forced to work their way inside.
Wednesday's game was really the first true test for Kessler and Auburn's forwards and it came against one of the best frontcourts in the country in UConn so it's not a huge concern, but it's something the team needs to work on moving forward.
K.D. Johnson might be this teams MVP
I know what you're thinking. Auburn has a future top pick in the NBA in Jabari Smith, how can anyone else be the MVP?
Well, while Smith is arguably Auburn's best player, I'd argue that Johnson is the most valuable player to this team right now. That could change when Allen Flanigan comes back, but for now, Johnson is my MVP.
What he brings on defense and how it can quickly translate to fastbreaks and buckets cannot be replicated.
He brings it night in and night out for Auburn and whether he's the sixth man or in the starting lineup like he was Wednesday, he's going to be in during crunch time and will always be someone to watch for a big steal or a big bucket.
NOT A MEMBER?
JOIN AUBURNSPORTS.COM TODAY to enjoy around-the-clock content including stories, analysis, videos, podcasts, call-in shows and The Greatest Message Board In The History of The Internet.
