How positional versatility, fearless 3-point range should be strengths for Auburn hoops

AUBURN — Auburn basketball is finally getting the positive national attention coach Bruce Pearl has sought over the last handful of years.

Don’t believe it? Getting assigned a trip to Duke as part of the second edition of the ACC/SEC Challenge should serve as proof: “I can no longer play the, ‘we don’t get any respect card,’ which I think we’ve earned by winning four conference championships over the last seven years,” Pearl said in a statement.

But with respect comes responsibility, and expectations for Auburn are as lofty as they’ve ever been under Pearl. Competing for conference championships is the new norm, and anything less than that will leave fans miffed. That’s what happens when you win 20 or more games in six of the last seven seasons and return an All-American at center in Johni Broome.

Reaching those heights won’t be easy, though. Not in the SEC, where eight teams reached March Madness last season and nearly a dozen have a realistic path to the Big Dance in 2024-25.

With the roster set and summer practices underway, here are a few areas of strength the Tigers should be able to lean to reach their goals:

HOOPS: How Auburn basketball has become ‘a little family’ in the NBA

FOOTBALL Questions for Auburn’s transformed secondary after four NFL departures

Positional versatility

Auburn’s rotation was pretty clear last season. Aden Holloway and Tre Donaldson split time at point guard, Denver Jones and KD Johnson held things down at shooting guard, the trio of Chad Baker-Mazara, Chris Moore and Lior Berman were the small forwards, Jaylin Williams and Chaney Williams manned the power forward position and Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell anchored things at center.

There wasn’t much room for mixing and matching, though Pearl did experiment at times. This year’s team should be much more positionless, as transfer point guard JP Pegues (Furman) and Cardwell are really the only players on the roster locked into one position due to either their height or overall…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/positional-versatility-fearless-3-point-090205737.html

Author : The Montgomery Advertiser

Publish date : 2024-06-14 09:02:05

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.