Auburn vs Davidson: 2019-20 College basketball game preview, TV Schedule
By Cody Gerena
In this Veterans Classic match-up, the #24 Auburn Tiger will be looking to pick up a quality win while the Davidson Wildcats will be fighting for a big win that will help them reach their tournament aspirations.
TV Schedule: Friday, November 8, 6:00 PM ET on CBS Sports Network
Arena: Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Maryland
Yep, November is here and that means NCAA Division 1 basketball is back and not even a few days into the season we already have a great Power 5 vs. Mid-Major match-up lined up where the ranked #24 Auburn Tigers from the SEC will face off against the Davidson Wildcats who have received some AP votes on the latest poll from the Atlantic 10 Conference. This game will be a part of the Veterans Classic doubleheader taking place where Navy plays at Alumni Hall in Annapolis, Maryland.
Auburn has come into this game fresh off of their first Final Four appearance in school history last year where they came within one point of beating the eventual champions Virginia, as well as an SEC Tournament Championship. Even though they had a strong year last year, they were chosen in the SEC preseason poll to finish fourth in the conference. In addition, they also have no players on the Preseason All-SEC First or Second teams.
This is due to the fact that there three top players from last year such as leading scorer and SEC Tournament MVP and All-SEC Second team Selection Bryce Brown, leading passer and All-SEC Second-team selection Jared Harper, and top rebounder Chuma Okeke. All three of those men were also NCAA Tournament All-Region selections for the Mid-West bracket which they won.
The Tigers are also coming from a Tuesday 83-74 win over Georgia Southern. Even though Auburn failed to cover the spread it was a barely competitive game past halftime. One noticeable takeaway in that match-up was the lack of three-point shots being taken compared to last year which was to be expected as all three starters that left led the team in three-point shots attempted and made each shooting above 37% as well Bryce Brown holding the Auburn record for most threes made.
Last season they averaged 30.1 attempts per game and made 11.4 of them for a 37.7% in making them while also being 49.4% of their attempted field goals. On Tuesday, the Auburn Tigers only shot 22 three-point shots and made just 7 of them for a 31.8% shooting rate while the three-point shot rate was reduced to 37.9%. This was against a team that was supposed to be an easy win, just imagine how much more these three-point stays will suffer in competitive games if they are already not using them like last year, but let’s not let this three-point tangent distract us from how they performed individually in this game.
The first noticeable performance was from the senior guard Samir Doughty who scored 20 points shooting 60% from the field with five rebounds. Senior center Austin Wiley scores 13 points going an impressive 71.4% from the field with 9 rebounds. Also freshman forward Issac Okoro scores 13 as well but with 5 rebounds.
Facing off against them will be the Davidson Wildcats, who will almost definitely be put in the AP Top 25 along with fellow Atlantic 10 member VCU with a win this Friday. Davidson finished second in the preseason media poll for their conference but more importantly, they got to keep all 5 of their starters from last year’s team which just missed out on the NCAA Tournament.
Among those starters is a junior guard who was last year’s top scorer with 17.3 points per game, All-A10 First team choice, Preseason Wooden Award candidate, and Preseason All-A10 First Team selection Kellan Grady. And also returning with him is the senior guard Jon Axel Gundmundsson, who averaged 16.9 points per game and led the team in rebounds with 7.3 rebounds per game and assists with 4.8 assists per game. That stat line has led him to becoming the 2018-19 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year and a selection on the All-A10 First Team for last season and this preseason. To add on both of those guys have been named to the Naismith Watch List and the Wooden Award Watch List for this season, which only lists the top 50 candidates across the country.
These two teams do not have a history with one another as they have only played one game between each other which was back in the early 1950’s where the Tigers beat the Wildcats 66-59.
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Due to how Davidson has not played a game which makes them harder to scout for the new season, retained all their starters, and is playing for a quality win that will be necessary by the time March comes around due to how crazy the Atlantic 10 Tournament gets, in the end, the Wildcats will wind up getting a close win.