Takeaways from Auburn basketball’s loss to West Virginia

The Auburn Tigers faced a tough test in West Virginia Saturday as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The Mountaineers were hot early. They shot extremely well and kept the Tigers off balance in the first half.

Auburn fought back in the second half and cut a 17 point lead down to one despite trouble with one sided officiating. Ultimately, Auburn came up short. Here are a few takeaways from tonight’s game.

Auburn is a streaky team

Auburn, across all sports, basketball certainly included, can be a roller coaster ride. This Tigers team can get hot, go on long winning streaks, and beat anyone in the nation. They can also get down, all momentum can dissipate, and they can lose to most anyone. Fortunately, when this team gets down, they eventually become motivated by adversity and it galvanizes them into another run.

The desire to prove others wrong has been essential to the psychology surrounding Auburn teams. These last two games have been tough, but Auburn is capable of getting back on track and finishing well this season.

Matchups are important

As they say, styles make fights. Matchups often decide games. Auburn’s last two matchups have been bad news. Big teams that apply effective pressure give Auburn fits and turn their offense from ok to terrible.

When this team struggles mightily on the offensive end, demoralization sets in and it effects their typically stellar defense. One thing leads to another, and Auburn can lose momentum for stretches of games that is hard to recover from.

Scoring guards and turnovers have led to losses

There are three commonalities in Auburn’s losses this season. Turnovers have been high, an opposing guard has had a big day, and Wendell Green Jr. and Johni Broome have struggled. When Auburn takes care of the ball, they usually win the game. Green and Broome are this team’s best players, but they are at times inconsistent and susceptible to certain matchups.

Fortunately, Tre Donaldson had his best game yet and appears to be growing as a scorer. Jaylin Williams and Allen Flanigan also played well. It’s also worth noting that Erik Stevenson had 31 points shooting an impressive 7-of-10 from three. Coach Bruce Pearl probably could have taken him in the portal this past year but appeared to choose not to. Auburn had another open scholarship spot, but was conservative in the portal this last offseason. Look for that to change this coming year.

Finally, here are some twitter reactions and highlights from tonight’s game

Need to get Green into a facilitating role. WVU’s pressure is bothering him/forcing Auburn to run more offense through Flanigan and Williams versus them just scoring.

Green/Jasper/Johnson combined for 4 points, 1 assist, 1 rebound, 6 turnovers, and 2 steals in the half.
— Jay Phillips (@aubawn) January 28, 2023

We talked about it. An opponent guard going off + Auburn guards turning it over equal losses every time this season. It’s happening again today. Erik Stevenson with 18 at half, and seven TOs from WGJ (4), KD and Al combined. It’s the exact combination that can’t happen.
— Justin Hokanson (@_JHokanson) January 28, 2023

Auburn trails West Virginia 45-29 at halftime.

Erik Stevenson (18 pts, 3-4 from deep) is borderline unstoppable, and WVU shot 56%. Tigers hung around by forcing seven turnovers.

Auburn's 41% shooting clip isn't bad, but it turned it over on 26.5% of its possessions (9 TOs).
— Nathan King (@NathanKing247) January 28, 2023

HALFTIME: West Virginia 45, Auburn 29

another brutal first half of defense this week from Auburn, which was unable to string together stops and buckets

and here's another scoring guard really getting after Auburn: Erik Stevenson has 18 points and is 3-4 from deep pic.twitter.com/KdW6JPbLeH
— Justin Ferguson (@JFergusonAU) January 28, 2023

WV shooting 58% from the floor
WV has more made FTs than Auburn has shots
WV has 40% fewer fouls called on them.

These are statistically anomalous
— 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫_𝐁𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐫 🐯 (@barner_burner) January 28, 2023

😤😤😤😤😤 pic.twitter.com/BK2DOYqaAi
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 28, 2023

KD doing KD things! pic.twitter.com/JeCVrqX8ms
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 28, 2023

Yeeeeeeaaaaahhhhh Tre! 👌 pic.twitter.com/mFvd2LRY1i
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 28, 2023

😤😤😤😤😤 pic.twitter.com/9bF5rePchZ
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) January 28, 2023

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