Arizona’s first road test arrives fast, and it comes with some real bite.
Tommy Lloyd and the Wildcats are headed to Neville Arena on Friday night to face Auburn, a team that has already shown enough early-season depth to make this a tricky trip into SEC country. Arizona is 2-1 after comfortable home wins over Cal Poly and Northern Arizona, while Auburn is unbeaten at 2-0 with victories over SE Louisiana and Appalachian State.
The Tigers are in Year 2 under Steven Pearl, who stepped in after his father, Bruce Pearl, retired last September. Auburn finished 22-16 a year ago, went 7-11 in SEC play, missed the NCAA Tournament, then ran through the NIT and beat Tulsa 92-86 in the title game.
This version of Auburn looks different in a few key spots, but the backcourt is intact. Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton are both back, while the frontcourt has been rebuilt and the bench has plenty of new faces.
It’s still early, and the Tigers’ two wins came against teams outside the top 200 at KenPom, so there’s only so much to learn from the opening stretch. Even so, this is a group that figures to bring plenty of resistance after Arizona handled Auburn 97-68 last season in McKale Center.
Pettiford is the headliner. The junior point guard is the only Tiger on the preseason All-SEC team, and he’s off to a huge start with 44 points and seven assists across Auburn’s first two games.
He was once viewed as a potential one-and-done, and now he looks like he could be one of the conference’s top scorers. Caleb Holt will likely spend plenty of the night trying to slow him down.
Overton gives Auburn another proven piece in the backcourt. He averaged 14.1 points in 32 minutes last season after earlier stops at Drake and Texas Tech, and his shooting from deep gives the Tigers a perimeter threat Arizona has to account for.
On the wing, Auburn is starting true freshman Caleb Williams, a 6-foot-5 player who wasn’t even ranked by 247Sports. He scored seven points in the opener and added three assists and three steals, but he’s still playing under 20 minutes a game, which makes him something of a wild card.
The Tigers’ front line brings size and toughness. Thomas Dowd, a 6-foot-8 transfer from Troy, averaged 14.4 points and 10.1 rebounds last season and should test Arizona on the glass and in the paint. That becomes even more important with RJ Godfrey unlikely to suit up because of his ongoing legal battle for eligibility.
Then there’s Narcisse Ngoy, a 7-foot, 280-pound force who will give Mo Krivas a serious physical challenge. Auburn’s frontcourt depth also means Ngoy can play hard without needing to carry a huge minutes load.
That depth runs through the rest of the rotation, too. Auburn is already using a 10-man group early in the season, and the Tigers have multiple reserve bigs in the mix.
Bukky Oboye, a transfer from Santa Clara, was an elite rim protector last year and has already piled up eight blocks in two games, along with eight points and eight rebounds. Owen Freeman, who was an elite low-post scorer at Iowa before transferring to Creighton and struggling last season, is now coming off the bench for Auburn. He’s averaging 6.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 12.5 minutes while shooting 71.4% from the field.
Auburn also has Kolby King, a fifth-year senior who gained eligibility and has produced 22 points and 11 rebounds in 30 minutes after stops at St. John’s, Tulane, Butler and Utah State. George Kimble III is averaging 8.0 points, and Adam Olsen is putting up 6.0 points per game while both are logging more than 16 minutes a night.
Friday’s matchup will be Auburn’s first real test against a high-major opponent, and it comes against an Arizona team trying to navigate its first road challenge of the season. Tipoff is set for 7:00 PM MST on Friday, Nov. 13, with the game airing on ESPN2.
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