Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona Wildcats head out on the road to SEC country this weekend, taking on the Auburn Tigers at Neville Arena on Friday night.
Arizona (2-1) is coming off a pair of comfortable home wins over Cal Poly and Northern Arizona, while Auburn is 2-0 with home wins against SE Louisiana and Appalachian State.
The Tigers are in Year 2 of the Steven Pearl era, who took over after his father, Bruce Pearl, retired last September. Auburn went 22-16 last year but went 7-11 in the SEC, failing to make the NCAA Tournament but winning the NIT after defeating Tulsa, 92-86.
Auburn returns the starting backcourt of Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton, but has a new-look frontcourt and plenty of new faces on the bench. It’s hard to get a real gauge on the Tigers after blowout wins over two teams outside the top 200 at KenPom, but there’s little doubt this team will put up a fight after the Wildcats thumped them last year, 97-68, at the McKale Center.
Below is a look at Auburn’s starting five and key rotation pieces ahead of Friday’s road showdown:
Starting lineup
Auburn is led by junior point guard Tahaad Pettiford, the only Tiger named to the preseason All-SEC team. The 6’0 junior was a potential one-and-done candidate two years ago, but now could be the conference’s leading scorer after scoring 44 points with seven assists in Auburn’s first two games. Expect Caleb Holt to have his hands full with Pettiford all game long.
Joining Pettiford in the backcourt is another returner for Steven Pearl, Kevin Overton, who averaged 14.1 points in 32 minutes last year after spending his first two seasons at Drake and Texas Tech, respectively. Overton is a lights out three point shooter, which will stretch Arizona’s defense on the perimeter.
Auburn starts a true freshman in Caleb Williams at the three, a 6’5 wing who wasn’t even ranked at 247Sports. Williams scored seven points in Auburn’s season opener, with three assists and three steals. He’s a bit of a wild card for the Tigers, although it is perhaps notable that he is averaging less than 20 minutes per game.
In the frontcourt, Auburn will go with 6’8 Troy transfer Thomas Dowd and 7’0 French big man Narcisse Ngoy. Dowd averaged 14.4 points and 10.1 rebounds last year for the Trojans, and his rebounding and physicality will be a challenge for the Wildcats – especially with RJ Godfrey unlikely to suit up amidst his ongoing legal battle for eligibility.
Meanwhile, Ngoy is a mountain of a man, standing 7’0 and 280 pounds. He will give Mo Krivas everything he has in this one, and Auburn’s talented frontcourt depth allows him to go hard without worrying about needing to play 30+ minutes per game.
Plenty of talent coming off the bench
The Tigers are far more than their starting five, with a full ten man rotation in the early part of the season.
Joining Ngoy and Dowd in the frontcourt is a pair of very different transfer big men: Bukky Oboye from Santa Clara and Owen Freeman from Creighton.
Oboye was an elite rim protector last year with the Broncos, and already has eight blocks in two games this season – along with eight points and eight rebounds.
Meanwhile, Freeman was an elite low post scorer at Iowa who transferred to Creighton and struggled last season. He’s now a reserve big for the Tigers, playing 12.5 minutes and averaging 6.5 points and 3.0 rebounds while shooting 71.4% from the field.
Auburn also has a fifth year senior who obtained eligibility in Kolby King, a 6’1 guard who has scored 22 points with 11 rebounds in 30 minutes with the Tigers – coming over after time spent at St. John’s, Tulane, Butler, and most recently Utah State.
George Kimble III (8.0 ppg) and Adam Olsen (6.0 PPG) both play 16+ minutes per game off the bench as well, with Auburn rocking a very deep unit in the early part of the season – which could change in their first game against a high major opponent.
Auburn and Arizona will tip at 7:00 PM MST on Friday, Nov. 13, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
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