Auburn Men’s Basketball team tours overseas and plays internationally in August.
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Auburn Basketball Plays Israel Overseas
We are back with another episode of the show powered by The War Rapport. I got my guy, Auburn Memes, here with me. We’re talking about a little Auburn basketball.
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Memes, Auburn basketball went worldwide.
I’ve been calling Bruce Mr. Worldwide before he was playing international ball, so I feel like I’ve been ahead on this trend. It was good to see him living up to the name.
He took the team overseas. This is a significant opportunity for a lot of players who have never had a chance to travel internationally at all. They traveled to Israel. Bruce is of Jewish descent, so this trip held a special significance for him. They got to go down there. They played the Israel under-20 team. These guys weren’t super experienced. I believe they’ll have some stiffer competition in the coming games, but game one was a blowout. I’m looking at the box score here with you. The final score was what? Where did they finish here?
It was 117 to 56. When you hear that score, you might think of the Bama game, but this was the Israel game.
It was a lopsided victory, but we got to see some things. I want to highlight a few things. There are some newcomers to Auburn basketball. High-profile transfer, Johni Broome, debuted as an Auburn Tiger in this game. We got to see him. The former LSU commit, Yohan, debuted in this one also. He had close to the most minutes out of there. He was top three in minutes that played in this game. Yohan had a pretty good game. He poured in twenty.
He was short of Broome by one second.
Before we get to the new guys, let’s talk about some of the incumbents. I had my eyes on Allen Flanigan in this game. We all know about his injury. His Achilles injury in 2021 set him back. I was looking to see how he bounced back. He seemed a lot more confident on that leg in this game. He shot the ball and nailed a couple of threes. I liked what I saw from Flanigan in this one. What did you think about Allen?
We had a postgame space afterward as we try to do to get a feel for everybody. I love doing those after the games because you get a lot of opinions. You got a lot of different eyes seeing different things because you can’t pick up on every single thing there is to notice. In that space, almost unanimously, that was one thing that almost everybody pointed out, myself included. I said, “Flanigan looks like he’s moving a lot better.”
I was a little overly critical of Flan a lot in 2021. I was trying not to be like that. When you see some things in the stats sheet, you’re like, “That could have been better.” It’s early on. It’s an expedition game. I’m not looking into it too much. The most important part was that the movement did seem a lot better. He was playing more confidently out there. He was, by and large, getting back to more of the Flanigan whom we remember from the previous season pre-injury.
I liked what I saw. You said it best. He looked like he trusted that Achilles out there. That’s a tough basketball injury to come back from. I was happy to see him bounce back. He had a little bit of bounce on his step. He looked good on defense, flying around the basketball. All eyes are on Yohan and Johni Broome as well as Chance Westry, who surprisingly looks very one-and-done-ish to me as well, too. What did you think about Chance Westry?
It’s fun because they’re playing as a team. They’re blowing out. They’re a borderline high school team if you look at the ages. Even then, there were some people tossing out how this team had played some big games in Europe and a lot of their key players weren’t even in. You’re almost playing backups of this team. From a caliper standpoint of matchups, it might have been a little lopsided. We’ll talk about this a little bit later, but the game is going to be a lot more intense in the competition as it is appearing.
Auburn Basketball: From a caliber standpoint of matchups, this game might have been a little lopsided, but there will be much more intense competition in this upcoming weekend’s game.
There are still some good storylines. I’m excited, almost in this surreal twilight zone. It’s early August 2022 and we get to talk about basketball, not in hypotheticals. We got a game to talk about. That’s cool. It gives us some good stuff to preview once we get closer to November 2022, when we do have some real basketball play. You got to circle these guys.
What was the story of 2021? It was Jabari Walker. What’s the story following that? It was, “How are we going to replace Jabari Walker? What are the guards going to do? Is Allen going to come back?” There were all these deals and what you got to circle. With the new guys coming in, Broome is a huge profile transfer. One of the guys at Morehead State led tons of stats in the Ohio Valley conference. He is a good guy to bring in, especially filling that void that Walker had.
When you look at the stats, he played one second more than Yohan. His was 19:11, whereas Yohan’s was 19:10. Nobody played more than twenty minutes. Pretty much almost everybody who touched the court was between about 17 to 19 minutes. That’s where most of the guys were. Bruce was trying to spread that a little bit more.
Specifically, going back to Broome, the guy was 8 for 9 field goal shots. He didn’t throw up any threes. As a big man, it’s probably not anything we needed to see, but he tore up the stat sheet across the board. He had seventeen points. He also got ten rebounds. This is probably one of the more unexpected pleasant surprises everybody saw toward the bottom end of minutes as far as guys in that medium with 16:23, but Dylan Cardwell had himself a game and led with 14 rebounds, 12 points, and 10 blocks. He looked like he was on fire.
Cardwell looked like a different guy. He didn’t look like the Cardwell of old. I felt like Dylan Cardwell may have made a significant jump this off-season based on what we saw. It’s just the first game and this was not a high level of competition that they went up against, but he did look more confident out there. I thought the team as a whole for the first game was not bad. They’re going to have to learn how to play with each other, especially with the new guys in the mix here.
It’s important to note that Auburn is 7 of 22 from 3. They shot 31.8% from the three-point range. That’s a number I hope they can improve on. It was a sore spot in 2021. The sub-30% three-point shooting was difficult to overcome against teams. When they had shooting slumps and they had to shoot their way out of a hole, there was not a high level of confidence that these guys could do that. We’ll see. It was 22 shots and 22 threes. There were a lot of shots taken in this game. They scored 117 points.
It almost looked like they were having fun at a certain point. It was an expedition. There wasn’t a lot of discipline, but with this level, how much do you expect there? I’m trying to have a little bit of grace on that. KD was shooting 3 for 8 on 3s and 4 for 10 for field goals. There were some Tomahawk balls. I’m like, “Why aren’t you shooting that pass?” I am then like, “It’s an expedition. They are practicing.” They, toward the end of the game, got a little bit looser and let him play. I’m trying to remind myself, “The game doesn’t matter. It’s an expedition game. We’re playing overseas. Don’t get into it too hard.”
The game doesn’t matter. It’s an exhibition game or playing overseas. Don’t get into it too hard.
They had eighteen steals in this game. It felt like they were intercepting passes out there like Deion Sanders. It was interesting. A lot of the steals were getting into passing lanes and taking the ball away. It was interesting to see them play. I thought they had a lot of good energy out there. There are a lot of good vibes around this team.
Let’s talk about some of the other guys, like Zep Jasper. At times, in 2021, fans started calling for him to shoot more. He was 3 or 4 from the field. He shot 75%. The one shot that he did miss was 1 or 2 from 3. They will be looking for him to score maybe a little bit more this 2022. Chance Westry had himself a game of 5 of 8 from the field.
You mentioned Johni Broome. He had 8 of 9 from the field. Wendell Green was in guard play. Let’s talk about guard play here for a second. He had 2 of 7 from the field. He shot 28%. He did not hit a three. He was all for three from the three-point range. What did you think about Wendell Green out there with eight points on the day?
With Wendell and KD, that one deal there cost us some potential games in 2021 where they were playing a little too much hero ball. When it hit, we won games. When it missed, it was like, “Breathe and pass around the shot clock. Get better looks.” I’m not trying to look too much into that, but that stat sheet brings up some bad memories for me a little bit. I would love to see both of them have a little bit better shot selection from all the shots they take, but especially the threes as well.
Between the two of them right there, you’re looking at 3 from 11 and then 6 of 17 from the field goal percentage. From your two guys that are handling the ball the most, you want better shooting. That was one of the bad headlines. The cloud that’s hanging over this team is that guard play. Both of them got to look in the mirror and say, “The shooting especially is stuff that we got to step up.”
As far as causing chaos out there, KD is doing his thing perfectly. Wendell looked good handling the ball. I love the facilitating he’s doing. When they get some good chemistry, we’ll be seeing more assists out of Wendell. If he can do that, it will, in turn, will help him get better looks and more shots. Guys will have to respect for him being a ball facilitator. It looks like he’s put on some weight. He looks strong. I loved his confidence and stuff out there.
Hopefully, this next game and maybe with the competition a little bit better, we’ll see a little bit more discipline. Hopefully, we’ll see some of those shot numbers be a little bit better. I personally feel confident in his game. We’re going to see a lot of improvements. It’ll be interesting. This may be our next segue here, but we will be seeing what our guy, Chance Westry is going to do. That was another huge storyline. A lot of people knew he was good, but he came out to show some people a show.
Westry, correct me if I’m wrong, was only a three-star recruit. Maybe he is a little bit overlooked by some schools and was evaluated to be not as good as some other players, but Westry looked strong out there. He’s bigger than I thought. This is not a small kid out there. He played 17 minutes with 5 of 8 from the field on 62.5% shooting. He nailed a three. He looked good. He finished with thirteen points and has a chance to be a contributor.
Westry was a four. It was Tre Donaldson, who was three. He didn’t play a whole lot.
He only got thirteen minutes. Pour Lior a bourbon. He got zero minutes there.
He is hurt, though, and didn’t dress out.
Is that what happened? I was like, “Why didn’t Lior get in?”
Yes. He’d been playing over there in Israel for a few weeks. It was with the US team playing some ball over there. He’s been playing some overseas ball for a little bit and has been tearing it up with them. Through doing that, he got banged up. It stinks. This would be a chance for him to keep it going on the stage he’s been on. You got to know they’d get him some minutes.
Who knows how he could be playing on this team? We know how he has come in and lit it up in 2021. I’m crossing my fingers. Everybody loves the walk-on story. Everybody loves Lior’s game. Let’s preemptively rest to see if he can get in because why not? Let’s see the depth of this team. Let’s see what everybody’s got. Let’s be honest. Who doesn’t love Lior?
I want to round out the discussion by talking a little bit about what we learned from this game about the 2022 and 2023 versions of the Auburn Tigers. Based on what you saw, who’s your starting lineup? Who are the five you’re putting out there for game one of the 2022 season?
Since the spotlight is on me and I had no time to prepare for this, I’m going to go with what my gut’s telling me. I appreciate you doing that and putting me on the spot. It makes things spicy. I’m about to put you on the spot because you put me on the spot. It’s coming back at you. You’re going to have to throw Wendell at that one.
When the spotlight is on you, and you have no time to prepare, you just have to go with what your gut is telling you.
For consistency, you need to throw Zep at that, too. You can equally argue having KD in there as well. Until proven wrong, you still got to put Flan at that three. You got to Yohan and Broome at the 4 and the 5. You could also talk about throwing Jaylin Williams in there. Also, Westry is that combo guy. They had him playing point. You can stick Westry because he’s 6’6. You could almost stick him anywhere, which is cool.
They got a lot of ways they can shift this roster around, especially with that flux they run. You could almost throw Westry in at 1, 2, or 3. He taught me into seeing it and he showed me nothing to prove that he could not do that. You have a similar situation there with what you can do with combinations with Broome and Jaylin Williams. Let’s not forget you got Dylan Cardwell in there, who can throw that stuff around. You’ve got a lot of interesting combinations.
The show is about what we learned with this team. Bruce has got some guys. He’s got some puzzle pieces and they have a lot of versatility. Some teams got their guys and that’s what they do. That’s their identity. It’s going to be a good and a bad thing because this team has a lot of versatility. They can have a lot of identities.
The key is can they find that early enough, grow it, develop it, and keep it sharp enough to where it is like, “One trick ponies figured out. We got you.” That happened a little bit toward the end of 2021. We don’t want to be fizzling out during the most important time to be heating up. Do you want to answer the same question or do I get to throw the spotlight back at you?
My analysis of this is not that dissimilar from yours. I’ll be interested to see if they put Wendell and Zep out there at the same time. Johni Broome and Yohan are going to be on the floor. I know that might sound weird. Their talent stood out to me, so we’ll see. I wonder if they’re going to try to play a little bit more big boy ball down low with Yohan hitting everything down low. He had 8 of 9.
That’s what I saw more of and loved.
I wonder if they’re going to try to bang down low a little bit more and shy away from shooting people out of the gym if the shooting looked like more of 2021, honestly.
I hate to say it. I’m not trying to put him on blast, but the two guys in your circle and as your shooters, I did not see it out of KD or Wendell at the show. I wasn’t like, “You’ve taken a drastic step and shown me that you were like, ‘We’re going to be confident in throwing this game on your back to get them.’” You don’t have your bar midrange up in there anymore. The problem with KD and Wendell is that when they’re hot, they are on absolute fire. When they’re cold, we’re getting a lot of shots. We didn’t get as many rebounds as we would’ve loved to see. That’s one thing Broome did. He did get a lot of rebounds. I love that.
Auburn Basketball: The problem with K.D. and Wendell is when they’re hot, they are on absolute fire, but when they’re cold, we’re not getting a lot of shots, and we didn’t get as many rebounds as we would’ve loved to see.
There were long rebounds on those missed shots from KD and Wendell. It was not good for the Auburn Tigers. We did have the Jazzy challenge you talked about.
I’m not letting you escape that one.
He asked us who would have the most total points over the three games that would be played. We had to pick as a group and we all picked Johni Broome. How is that looking so far? Broome had seventeen points. The top score was Yohan with twenty points. The top 2 scores were the 2 newcomers with 20 and 17 points. I feel pretty good about Johni so far.
You’re in a good spot. Being three points behind is not bad. If all of you remember, as a person who was watching the live show, all of you were trying to talk yourselves into Wendell.
I was trying to talk myself into Wendell, but I was like, “We’ll go with Johni.”
You’d be twelve points in the back. Who was it that kept saying, “Broome?” Was it Ike?
It was Ike that was hard on Broome. I was talking myself into Wendell because I wanted to believe that he was going to be a better shooter. We didn’t see that exactly. He was only 28.6% from the field. He was 0 of 3 from the three-point range. Realistically speaking, if he hits all of those threes, he ties Broome for seventeen points.
That is a good point.
He’s 5 of 7 from the field. If he hits those threes, he ties with Broome, but he did not hit those shots. I thought he would hit, which is why I’m glad we did not go with Wendell. We’ll be in a stronger position here going into the next game. Who knows? Wendell could shoot lights out in the next game. You never know with those guys.
That one’s against the Israel All-star team. On the following day, the matchup is between the Israel national team. Think more of Olympic caliper-level basketball there. The skillset should be much higher. I’m going to imagine there that you’re going to start seeing a lot more disciplined looks and a little bit more plays being run. The big question mark I had was looking at the sheet here. Minutes-wise was pretty evened out for everybody, which makes sense.
It’s a fun trip. You don’t want to take that trip overseas and say, “You’re going to ride the bench.” You want to have these guys get a chance to play. That’s what they came here to do. I’m curious about this next game. Are they going to do a little bit of that or are they going to wait and maybe save it to replicate game time minutes versus the national team? That should be the highest level of competition.
It’s a fun trip. You don’t want to take that trip overseas and say, “You’re going to ride the bench.” You want to give these guys a chance to play because that’s what they came here to do.
That’ll be the interesting question mark there but expect some good basketball. I think of some good indications of what this team’s identity is going to be because the talent gap should be much narrower. It will give the challenge to see them be like, “If we want to win this game, we don’t need to be Tomahawking threes for the hell of it. We need to run a play, get open looks, and facilitate some actual good shots.” It’ll be fun. I’m ready for it.
I’m ready for it, too. Certainly, the level of competition is going to be much tougher in the next couple of games they got coming. We’ll be tracking to see how this version of the Auburn Tigers is going to progress here. This is a great opportunity for them. Bruce Pearl talked about this opportunity in the interview that we did with him at the SEC Media Days. I’m wishing those guys safe travels. As always, I want to thank my guy, Auburn Memes, for joining me to talk a little about Auburn basketball. We’ll be back with you with Mike, Mac, and Memes on the show powered by The War Rapport. We are signing off. As always, War Eagle.