Auburn plays its season finale on Saturday as the Tigers host Mississippi State in Auburn Arena.
Opening statement…
“I talked to the team yesterday. Going to practice yesterday was different because it’s just been a long time since we went to practice, I can’t even remember the last time, and we knew the season was going to be over at a certain point because you’re always going to the tournament. It was just different. My word for it with the team was different. Some of the guys had some different words. But we’ve managed to continue to come to practice and try to lock in, find ways and game plan and grind. I hope we can do that again tomorrow. Mississippi State is a really good defensive team. In their last five wins, they’re holding teams down to 55 points. It’s interesting. Last year, it was the first league game. This year, it’s the last league game. So it’s been the longest time possible between when these two teams have played. Last year, we scored 14 points in the first 14 minutes. Because we had also played pretty good defense, we hung in there and we got a great, great road win there last year because Mississippi State was really good last year. They’re a really good defensive team, great rebounding team, and they’ve got a couple of interesting dynamics. They’ve got the two great guards in (Iverson) Molinar and (DJ) Stewart, who are fifth and sixth or so in the league in scoring. And they’ve got two frontline guys in (Abdul) Ado and (Tolu) Smith, who together physically, rebounding, blocking shots, are the most imposing frontline. I think the fact that they’re in the middle of our league right now speaks to how good league is. They’re 5-3 on the road. Two of the losses came at Alabama and at Tennessee, and they were single-digit losses and they had chances in those games. I think this is a Mississippi State team heading into the SEC Tournament that’s got a chance to make some noise. Because they’re not a juggernaut offensively and they do play at a slower pace and they’ve not been a great free throw shooting team overall – although in this league I don’t think you have to because there’s not that many free throws being shot – they’re going to be in every game. They’re going to be in every game in Nashville. So it’s going to be interesting to see how they do come tournament time. They’re probably going to need to win a couple games to get in the NCAA Tournament, but they’re good enough. So we’ve got to be able to defend, we’ve got to be able to rebound. Obviously, we struggle right now without a couple of our best offensive players, certainly without Sharife (Cooper), offensively. But the defense has been better, and the guys have really been competing. I know you guys have had a decent handle on the team all year long, so we’ll see if we can finish up and play our best game on Saturday, which will be required to win.”
On what has stood out in Mississippi State’s latest results…
“Like I said, 55 points. That’s not a lot of points to be giving up. They outrebound you. They lead the league in rebound margin. They’re shooting the ball a little bit better. Like I said, those four players, those four guys are dominating players at their positions. Yeah, they’re playing well. They’re big, too. They’re like the sixth-biggest team in the country. They’re really big.”
On building on the chemistry heading into the last game and into the spring…
“We haven’t had a spring in the last couple springs – last year due to COVID and the year before due to the Final Four run. So, we’re going to have a five-week spring conditioning program. Last year, we got to play a full regular season but didn’t get to play in the postseason at all. This year, we played pretty much a full season and there will be postseason. But this year everyone gets to come back. There will be a lot of sixth-year guys coming back next year. And those sixth-year guys, let’s say they’re 24, 25. They’ll be playing against 17-, 18-year-old freshman. It’s a little different. We played a full season this year and a full postseason. This whole everybody can come back next year thing, when we made that decision, it didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me. It still doesn’t.”
On what it says about the players to not have a positive COVID test all season…
“It says a lot. I know I’ve talked about it before. I don’t think Mississippi State has either, right? We’re the few teams in the whole country that have made it through. I just think it says a lot about the universities, it says a lot about our leadership, it says a lot about our campuses, that the students, and the faculty, and the leadership on campus, and the people in the community of Starkville and in Auburn, Alabama did the best they could to create a safe environment for this university and Mississippi State University to operate, to open, to teach. Our kids were in school, our kids were in class. People in other parts of the country could learn a lot from the leadership in Starkville or Auburn, Alabama about having the kids in school. I do think it speaks a lot to the frontline workers and caregivers on the medical side, as well as the people at the university that work on educating our kids and giving these students, and in this case these student-athletes, the opportunity. Our kids did a good job of staying socially distant, of masking up, of making sure they took care of their hygiene and washing their hands and doing the things that they needed to do. And yes, there were things that they had to sacrifice in order to stay COVID free.”
On if Devan Cambridge driving to the basket is an evolution of his game…
“That’s exactly right. That’s part of his evolution and development as a player. To be able to pick up the ability to turn corners and get downhill, and he has done a better job with that, and it is something he has worked on. I’m looking forward to his offseason because we’re going to continue to develop that aspect of his game and build off his ability to shoot the basketball and obviously defend and use his length. Part of it also is not having a playmaking guard, either Justin (Powell) or Sharife (Cooper), or both in this case. More dribble penetration is going to be required from Allen Flanigan or Jamal Johnson or Devan Cambridge, other guys Jaylin Williams, JT Thor to be able to break the defense down off the bounce. I am really pleased with Devan. He’s been our most consistent player in SEC play. That is a strong statement. Last year, he had those incredible highs, a couple huge games – Tennessee, LSU, South Carolina – that’s just three that jump out at me. And then there were some games where it was feast or famine. He did not have a particularly good December or November. He wasn’t very productive. He wasn’t doing as much on either side of the ball. He went home and he and I talked during the Christmas break. He definitely came back with a different mental focus and a different mental toughness, and it does speak to the fact that mentally, he turned something on. He evaluated himself, he recognized, he was accountable, and he has done something about it and had a really good SEC run.”
On if increasing the tempo will help and the test JT Thor will have Saturday…
“I don’t know whether we’re going to be fast. We’re not as fast as we’ve been. And you know I smile because this will be a good test, because Herb Jones wasn’t a good enough test for him on Tuesday or last Saturday Yves Pons wasn’t a good enough test for him, so now he has got to go up against (Tolu) Smith. And the point is that young freshman has been tested every night, and he’s gotten better. You know he really has. Now our young front line gets to go against the biggest and most physical front line we’ll see all year long. And maybe that’s a good thing heading into the offseason when we get those guys in the weight room.
On Sharife Cooper’s availability…
“We’re going to practice this afternoon. I doubt it. He worked out yesterday, he went through some play call review. We didn’t have any contact. He just doesn’t look like he can push off as much as he would need to. So we’ll see how he does today. I guess I would just call it doubtful, but it is possible. He’s getting closer. I just don’t know. I know he’s not 100 percent.”
