Alabama Basketball: 2021-22 keys for Crimson Tide to win at Auburn

Guard the Perimeter

Last week Auburn narrowly escaped Columbia, Missouri with a win over the Missouri Tigers in their first game ranked as number one in program history. A large reason why Missouri was able to nearly beat Auburn was because of their perimeter defense, as Auburn made only 6 of the 28 threes they shot or 21.4%.

On average Auburn makes 8.5 of the 25.7 threes they shoot per game, or 33.2% because they did a good job of slowing them down beyond the perimeter, they were nearly able to beat the top-ranked Tigers. Unfortunately for Missouri, they weren’t able to make a basket at the buzzer, and with that, the No. 1 team in the country was able to escape with the win.

Auburn has shot below 28% from three-point range only six times this season, of those six games they won four of them by single-digits, with the outliers being against Georgia when they shot 27.8%, and their most recent game against Oklahoma, when they shot 26.1%.

That being said, teams that have been able to keep Auburn below 28% from beyond the arc, have put themselves in the position to potentially beat Auburn. One of the teams that were able to limit Auburn’s ability to shoot the three was Alabama on January 11th when Auburn made only 7 of the 26 threes they shot.

If Alabama is able to get a hand up and make it difficult for Auburn to shoot, and make their threes, then statistically speaking, the Crimson Tide will give themselves a chance to go into Auburn Arena, and knock off the top-ranked team in the nation.