LSU Basketball Prepares For Auburn Team That's Much Better Than Record Suggests

Will Wade knows that Auburn is better than its record would suggest. An analytics guru by trade, all Wade has to do is take one look at the numbers and see that this Auburn team will pose a lot of threats to LSU when the Tigers square off against one another in Baton Rouge on Saturday.

Despite a .500 record and losers of five of their last six, Auburn (11-11, 5-8) has been competitive in nearly every game and against pretty stiff competition as well. Bruce Pearl's team lost by 12 to No. 2 Baylor, six to No. 20 Missouri and two to Ole Miss.

With Pearl at the helm, Auburn is undoubtedly led on the court by freshman guard Sharife Cooper, who's averaging 19.6 points per game and 8.6 assists in the six games he's played in this season. Cooper's start to his college career was put on hold as an extended NCAA eligibility review finally cleared the extremely talented freshman guard to play.

In those six games, Auburn has looked at its best all season and Cooper's insertion into the lineup is no small reason why.

"Their record shows that they should be better than what it is. They’re a little bit young and they’ve had some problems down the stretch of some games but their numbers would indicate they’re a lot better than their record shows," Wade said.

Auburn self imposed a postseason ban for the 2020-21 season and has struggled with consistency throughout conference play. With one of the top offenses in the SEC, Auburn averages 78.8 points per game and does a great job of getting to the free throw line, especially considering the number of three pointers the team takes.

Pearl's teams have always taken a ton of threes and get out in transition as well as anyone. This season is no different as Auburn ranks top 15 in the country in three point field goals attempted (605) and top 20 in three pointers made (205).

"His team’s are always fast, always aggressive on the offensive end, aggressive in transition, aggressive on the offensive glass," Wade said. "Their transition offense is tremendous, it’s top five in the country after an opponent’s made basket is not something you see very often. We can’t do all of our celebrating and all our BS we tend to do. We gotta get back in transition and then we gotta block them out."

One of the areas LSU has struggled with at times this season is offensive rebounding and Auburn, led by center Dylan Cardwell who averages nearly two offensive rebounds per game, is among the best in the SEC. The good news for LSU is that Auburn is the second worst defensive team in terms of efficiency, allowing opponents to score 76 points per game and shoot 43.5% from the field.

LSU (14-6, 8-4) has seemed to find its footing on offense, particularly since the return of Darius Days. In wins over Mississippi State and Tennessee, the Tigers have shot 57% from the field and scored 172 total points in the double digit victories.

In those two Quad 1 win opportunites, Days averaged 15 points and eight rebounds a contest, providing necessary floor spacing and rebounding. Aundre Hyatt has stepped up in a starting role and is continuing to show growth and consistency behind the "Big 4." Wade also said to keep an eye on Mwani Wilkinson, who's been more aggressive in practice of late on offense and could be a good source for scoring.

The Tigers have also seen guards Cam Thomas and Javonte Smart playing some of their best ball of the season and with four games left, LSU needs to finish on a high note to continue to raise its NCAA tournament standing.

"We're getting closer to where I think we can be, we've settled into a nice eight-man rotation here, but we're certainly not there yet," Wade said. "We had to get ourselves out of the rut, now we’re out of the rut but we’re not home free. We’ve got a lot of undercurrent going into this game in terms of coming off two wins in a row. We’re playing a very dangerous team, a team that’s a tough matchup for us. This is a big Quad 2 game and we’ve got to continue to move forward and continue to build on the progress that we’ve made."