No. 3 Auburn set for home game against Ole Miss

Jabari Smith, Walker Kessler, K.D. Johnson, Allen Flanigan, and Zep Jasper are the expected starters for Wednesday’s household against Ole Pass up (13-14, 4-10 SEC). The No. 3 Auburn men’s basketball staff seems to rebound from Saturday’s 63-62 decline from Florida.

Head mentor Bruce Pearl knows the Tigers control their future to gain the conference’s common-season title. Auburn retains a tie-breaker and a a person-video game advantage about No. 6 Kentucky heading into the last 4 games of this time.

Just after returning from Gainesville, the Tigers had Sunday off two times of observe in advance of the 7:30 pm CT tip versus the Rebels. Pearl spoke to reporters on Tuesday. He stated the staff desires to learn from the loss.

“Those are really excellent times due to the fact you’re making an attempt to get that flavor out of your mouth. So I imagined our men practiced genuinely effectively yesterday,” Pearl reported ahead of Tuesday’s follow. “And we acquired a whole lot of superior items finished. Our guys, they want to gain a championship, and they know they’ve got four games still left in the common season, and we’ve bought 4 tough video games.”

Auburn (24-3, 12-2 SEC) dropped a place in the polls following getting rid of by a person stage on the street in opposition to the Gators inspite of successful a dwelling match earlier in the 7 days from Vanderbilt. Beating the Commodores gave the Tigers a 14- document at Auburn Arena.

Kessler enters the match 4 blocks shy of Auburn’s single-year record in blocks. Kyle Davis set the regular in 2002-3 with 126 blocked photographs. A promising indicator for an Auburn acquire would be Kessler breaking the report against a feisty Rebel squad. Kessler is averaging six blocks a night about his previous 5 online games. The Tigers are 3-2 in these contests.

A critical matchup will be how Jasper handles Rebel guard Markel Joiner on protection. Joiner did not engage in in the Jan 15 acquire for Auburn at Ole Skip. Joiner averages 17.8 details on 46.6 percent capturing more than his past five online games, like Saturday’s Rebel earn from Georgia.

“Their guards fly all around, and they are seriously meticulous in their offensive execution, and you know, they have been on speed early in our match to score a ton of factors,” Pearl stated. “They experienced 15 in the first five minutes. They had 27 in the initial 10 minutes. They had 35 in the very first 12 minutes, and they experienced 44 in a 50 percent, capturing 57 percent they shot it good. But to our credit rating, we had a great offensive working day.”

Jasper will probably expend a lot of time guarding Joiner. He’ll also be pivotal for the Tiger offense which is struggled with turnovers and missed photographs these days. Jasper has 17 turnovers in nearly 600 minutes of gameplay. He’s averaging a single turnover per every single 33.3 minutes. He hasn’t experienced a turnover in a game because the Jan 11 acquire from Alabama.

Auburn will will need Jasper to be a lockdown defender on the perimeter to make life less difficult for Kessler and Smith in the paint.

“They’re shooting third in the league suitable now in 3-position proportion at 36 {73375d9cc0eb62eadf703eace8c5332f876cb0fdecf5a1aaee3be06b81bdcf82}. I think that’s what will make them dangerous,” Pearl claimed. That is what manufactured Florida unsafe. And, clearly, in late-sport predicaments, Florida lined us up and pulled on us in late-sport and produced some tricky a few balls. And I believe you’re gonna see that from folks for the reason that of our inside protection. So that is likely to be a big component of our defense and our aim.”

Nubyjas Wilborn handles Auburn for Alabama Media Group.