Alabama Basketball Opponent Preview: Auburn Tigers

In its final home game of the season, Alabama Basketball will host the Auburn Tigers in Coleman Coliseum on Wednesday night. The Tigers are 19-10 and 9-7 in the SEC, but have lost seven of their last 10 games.

Auburn is coming off a shocking 32-point loss at Kentucky, and hopes to play the Crimson Tide more competitively. If the Tigers are able to pull off the upset, they will improve their own seeding in the SEC and NCAA tournaments while potentially spoiling Alabama’s outright SEC regular season title. Bama would have to lose both of its last two games to relinquish the crown.

Auburn is still led by guard Wendell Green Jr. and paint presence Johni Broome. Broome has posted team-highs of 14.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game, while Green Jr. averages 13.8 points and a team-high 4.2 assists.

On the wing, Jaylin Williams and Allen Flanigan are both solid scoring options. Williams and Flanigan are physical forwards who can do a little bit of everything. Both are streaky shooters, but Williams has been more reliable this season.

In the last matchup between these two teams, Green Jr. and Williams got hot from the outside, combining to hit all seven of Auburn’s three-pointers in the game.

Contrarily, Johni Broome struggled mightily, as the Alabama frontcourt controlled the paint. Broome finished with eight points and nine rebounds on just 3-11 shooting. His field goal percentage of 27.3 percent was his lowest of the year, and a far cry from his season average of 54.6 percent.

Meanwhile, Alabama Basketball shot a ridiculous 82 percent (23-28) on two-point shots. Broome, who ranks third in the SEC and in the top-10 nationally in blocks, was a non-factor protecting the rim. He recorded just one block as the Tide finished nearly everything in the paint. Alabama big men Charles Bediako, Noah Clowney, and Nick Pringle combined to shot 6-8 from the field. Low volume, but highly efficient.

Auburn attempted to funnel most of the shot attempts to the guards, but they were equally as efficient. Mark Sears, Jaden Bradley, and Rylan Griffen combined to go 15-20 from the field and 5-8 from the three-point line.

The bad news for Auburn is that they were unable to beat Alabama Basketball in their own gym, and now they must travel to Tuscaloosa.

To compound the bad news, they were unable to beat Alabama in spite of Brandon Miller having an off day. The SEC Player of the Year frontrunner went 0-7 from three-point range and finished with just 13 points. It is probably a safe bet that Miller will not shoot that poorly again.

In fact, Alabama made just six three-pointers as a team at Auburn. One of the nation’s top three-point shooting teams, Bama typically makes just under twice that many.

If Alabama Basketball is even on par with its average on Wednesday night, the Tigers may be in trouble.