It was another up and down season for Bruce Pearl and the Auburn Tigers.
But even with an 11th place finish in the SEC and a host of disappointing performances in league play, Auburn is further along than it was a few short years ago.
This season, Pearl led the program to a 18-13 record, which was the Tigers’ first winning season since going 24-12 during the 2008-09 season.
However, even with the numbers going up in the win column, Pearl isn’t completely satisfied with the program’s improvement just yet.
“I think people would have expected, and certainly in my own expectations, that we would have made more progress faster,” Pearl said on this week’s SEC coaches teleconference. “At the same time, there’s a lot of things that we’ve accomplished this year that hasn’t been accomplished in a long time at Auburn.”
“We’ve got four freshmen that lead us in scoring, and we’re the only team in the country to have that.”
Youth has certainly been a major theme for not only Auburn this season, but for the entire SEC. The league ranked 32nd out of 32 conferences in KenPom’s experience rating this season, with Mississippi State being regarded as the second most inexperienced team in the country (350th out of 351 teams). Auburn finished 330th.
The good news that is that Pearl has indeed gotten a lot of out his inexperienced nucleus. Mustapha Heron led the team in scoring (15.2 points per game) and earned All-Freshman Team honors for his efforts.
Jared Harper (11.5 PPG) and Danjel Purifoy (11.4 PPG) also averaged double-figures, while promising center Austin Wiley made significant progress after joining the team in mid-December.
And while offense has rarely been a problem for Auburn’s young core, defense has been a different story.
The Tigers finished 319th in the nation in scoring defense during the regular season (79.4 PPG allowed), and had plenty of trouble getting stops in key moments in games. They also finished last in the league in rebounding margin.
Fixing those defensive problems could allow Auburn to play multiple games in Nashville this week.
“We have a very young team that has learned a lot,” Pearl said. “Offensively, to be second in league in offense in conference games, first in three-point shooting percentage, second in three-pointers made….we’ve got some really good offensive numbers.”
“If we could cure what’s ailed us this year and that’s to defend and rebound better, then we can continue to play into March.”
If Auburn will continue playing in March, it’ll have to first beat a Missouri team that’s been surrounded by uncertainty over the past week.
Kim Anderson announced his resignation as the team’s head coach on Sunday after three straight seasons with 20 or more losses. Auburn swept the regular season series between the two teams, winning 77-72 in Columbia on January 10 and 89-78 at home in the regular season finale last Saturday. The Tigers also swept rival Alabama and LSU.
But finding consistent success against the league’s top teams was more of a struggle. Auburn played well at times against the SEC’s best, but couldn’t make enough plays in the second half to find more wins.
That’s the sign of a young team still finding its way in a conference that’s growing more competitive by the year.
“We’ve had some real significant moments,” Pearl said. “We just didn’t do it in the regular season in the SEC due to the competitiveness of the league and not being able to protect the lead in the second half due to our own inabilities defensively and in rebounding.”
Ultimately, those growing pains are part of the process for all teams that lack experience.
And Pearl remains encouraged about the road ahead for Auburn basketball.
“We’ve not made more progress than we would like,” he said. “But I’m very encouraged and very excited about our program.”
“We’re a competitive program in the SEC and we weren’t a few years ago. I’m very pleased with that.”