Auburn suffered a 100-95 overtime loss to Division II Barry University in Thursday night’s exhibition game at Auburn Arena.
The Tigers were without sophomores Austin Wiley and Danjel Purifoy after the school announced that both would be held out of action indefinitely due to the FBI’s ongoing investigation.
FINAL | Barry U def. Auburn 100-95 in exhibition play. pic.twitter.com/vbjj2TDmTQ
— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) November 3, 2017
Mustapha Heron led Auburn with 21 points on the evening, while Jared Harper added 20.
Sophomore forward Anfernee McLemore contributed 17 points in 23 minutes of action.
Barry was paced by Sawyer Glick’s 32 points. Elvar Fridriksson poured in 24 points for the Miami-based program.
Auburn shot only 3-of-20 from 3-point land, with Barry knocking down 16 3-pointers on 41 attempts.
Lovell’s Analysis
I’ve been the leader of the “don’t read too much into exhibition games” club, but there are obviously things that have to be addressed.
Before we go too far in the negative direction, let’s point out the obvious: Wiley and Purifoy are among the top three players on this team.
Wiley was my preseason pick for the SEC’s most improved player, and Purifoy should get a boost from moving back to his natural position at small forward.
Not having them is a big blow since both are likely to offer double-digit scoring and rebounding potential in any given game, and both are all-SEC caliber players when they’re at their best.
Wiley is a dominant, traditional post player that will draw double teams most nights, and not having him on the floor moves a lot of attention from the paint to the perimeter.
Another point: Barry is actually a decent basketball team (ranked No. 12 in D-II) that could deliver a similar performance against other Division I teams that played lackluster defense.
Moving beyond that, there have been question marks for this program since Chuck Person’s arrest back in September.
That started a domino effect that few people saw coming, and many of us wondered if it would impact the on-court product for the Tigers.
It appeared that it wouldn’t, but then the Wiley/Purifoy news surfaced and made it clear that things would look a bit different for now.
The most concerning part of all of this (beyond the unknowns of how long Wiley and Purifoy will be out) is still on the defensive end of the floor.
That was far and away the biggest weakness for the Tigers last season, and while it’s only one exhibition game (and Barry did shoot 41 3-pointers), giving up 100 points to a Division II team – no matter how good they are – isn’t ideal.
This team gave up 79.6 points per game last year (321st nationally), so giving up the century mark in the regular season tune-up will raise a few eyebrows.
Now, just like after every other exhibition game around the country, Auburn’s coaching staff will attempt to make adjustments and try to get things where they need to be before the season opener.
No team is where they want to be this time of year, and it’s all about how much progress is made going forward.
But for Bruce Pearl, this adjustment process is a challenging one. He’s not only dealing with a team that still has to find a lot more consistency on defense, but he’s also dealing with an FBI investigation that’s currently keeping two elite players on the bench.
The Tigers have more than enough time and talent to get back on track. McLemore played well, and freshmen Davion Mitchell and Chuma Okeke figure to find more minutes as the season progresses due to their defensive abilities.
And again, it’s an exhibition game, and Auburn isn’t the first and won’t be the last to suffer a head-scratching loss in one of these games.
However, there is clearly still work to be done if Auburn wants to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003.
And that challenge is made all the more difficult by the off-the-court events that still leave more questions than answers for Pearl’s roster entering the start of the regular season.