Auburn vs LSU: 2018-19 College basketball game preview, TV schedule
By Joey Loose
Auburn and LSU will meet Saturday in an intriguing SEC conference game. Will LSU keep rolling or can Auburn snag a key road win?
TV schedule: Saturday, February 9, 2:00 pm ET. ESPN2
Arena: Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana
After last year’s finish at the top of the SEC standings, Auburn (16-6) has high expectations this season. To this point, they’ve stumbled to a 5-4 mark in SEC play and sit three games behind the other Tigers. Bruce Pearl has certainly turned this program around, but they need to start winning against good teams on the road. They’ve won three straight, but all were at home and against inferior SEC teams.
Senior guard Bryce Brown (17.0 ppg) is the offensive player to watch for Auburn. He can shoot solidly from all over the court, but he’s just one piece of the puzzle for this highly rated offensive attack. Another player to watch is junior guard Jared Harper (15.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg) who can score in bunches or find the open man. The team has been without center Austin Wiley (10.3 ppg, 5.9 rpg), who played very briefly in their win over Florida, but this team is much better with Wiley on the court and feeling like himself.
Despite some struggles, this team is still very highly rated, ranking 14th in KenPom and 8th in offensive efficiency. Their defense has been much better in recent weeks and rank 1st in the nation in forcing turnovers. The team is also pretty solid on the offensive boards and they’ll need to be grabbing those in this road game.
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Across the court, LSU (18-4) has been impressive since the beginning of SEC play. Last Saturday’s home loss to Arkansas remains their lone clunker in league play, and they’ve already won on the road at both Mississippi schools. The big challenge comes with a trip to Lexington next Tuesday, but these Tigers have their work cut for them before then.
LSU is not an incredibly deep team, but the players who do see the floor make those minutes count. Sophomore guard Tremont Waters (15.6 ppg, 5.9 apg) leads the team in both scoring and assists. Freshman forward Naz Reid (13.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg) put up 29 at Mississippi State on Wednesday to lead the Tigers, while 36 from Waters led the way at Texas A&M a few weeks back. In addition, freshman forward Kavell Bigby-Williams (7.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg) has been a rebounding machine recently.
Like Auburn, this LSU team is solid offensively, sitting at 16th in offensive efficiency. They’re 21st in KenPom and those solid efforts in SEC play have certainly helped. They play a similar game to Auburn, also in the top 25 in offensive rebounding and 23rd in the nation in 2-point field goals.
Rebounding will be important in this game for both sides, and whoever gets those second-chance opportunities is going to have the better chance. Auburn needs Brown and Harper to get going early to pull this game off on the road. For LSU, another great performance from Reid could be in the cards, especially if he wins the rebounding battle down low.
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They’ve struggled on the road in recent weeks, but Auburn’s defense has been a bit better than LSU’s this season, and that’ll help them in Baton Rouge. I expect this to be a close game, but feel that Auburn will win the rebounding battle and have enough in them to nab an important road win.