After offseason departures, Auburn basketball still needs to improve its defense

After offseason departures, Auburn basketball still needs to improve its defense

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl has excitedly stood at the podium and on Zoom calls for preseason press conferences talking about how he believes he found players in the transfer portal who can shoot and saw improvement in that area from the roster he retained.

But he’s always followed that up with a remark on the caveat: what he’s lost defensively.

“Got to replace Zep (Jasper),” Pearl said in Zoom press conference in August. “Denver Jones is the likely candidate to replace Zep. We will not be able to have a better on-ball defender on the floor than Zep Jasper, no matter who we put out there.”

Jones, who scored more than 20 points per game last season at FIU before transferring to Auburn, is intended to help Auburn become a better shooting team — an area where it has struggled mightily since the 2019 Final Four run.

The loss of guard Allen Flanigan to Ole Miss hurts, too. Pearl heralded him as playing his best basketball toward the end of last season.

So come Pro Day on Thursday, with a few weeks of practice now behind him, Pearl still isn’t sure how his defense will come together. He said a team with five guys on the floor who can mak sure the ball stays in front of them will limit the number of rotations needed to keep up defensively.

But Auburn doesn’t have five guys who can do that right now, Pearl said.

“We don’t have that luxury,” Pearl said Thursday. “Therefore, we’ve got to be in the right spots at all times. We’ve got to go get 50-50 balls. We don’t have Walker back there to clean everything up. Not that Dylan or Johni or Chaney or Jaylin can’t block shots. But I think we’re better offensively than we are defensively, and I think our biggest challenge is one-on-one coverage.”

After Auburn’s first scrimmage, Pearl was happy with how his team shot the ball, but in turn, disappointed with how it defended.

Pearl said Auburn shot 55% from the field and 50% on 3-pointers. Pearl said it means Auburn can’t guard themselves. He listed Jones, Jasper’s replacement, as one of Auburn’s better defenders then, along with forward Chris Moore and transfer guard Chaney Johnson.

“And Denver’s always probably been a good defender, but not a great defender,” Pearl said on Pro Day. “I think a combination of that he’s really worked on his defense, and the fact that he stands out a little bit defensively because we’re not very good defensively.”

Auburn played better defensively, or maybe just shot the ball worse, in its second scrimmage which took place during Pro Day.

As a team, Auburn shot just over 42% from the field and 37% on 3-pointers. It turned the ball over two more times (13) than the first scrimmage (11).

Defense may prove to be the deciding factor in Auburn’s point guard position battle between 5-star freshman Aden Holloway and sophomore Tre Donaldson.

Pearl said Donaldson has the early advantage because he has a better knowledge of the offense based on his experience. Pearl said both Donaldson and Holloway have been better offensively than defensively.

Both guards played poorly in the scrimmage. Holloway did not score, shooting 0-6 from the field, and turned it over once. Donaldson scored eight points but did so on an inefficient 2-8 shooting from the field. He also had three turnovers.

And certainly, neither guard has provided enough defense to separate themselves.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]