Auburn Handles Mississippi State Despite Johni Broome's Absence

SportsGrid

Watch Auburn Handles Mississippi State Despite Johni Broome's Absence - SportsGrid on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00The SEC as the powerhouse by far in college basketball in 24-25?

00:06Yeah, I'll hear that argument, including the number one team in the country.

00:11Now atop the poll, the Auburn Tigers.

00:14But doing battle last night in a top-15 tilt on the Plains against 15th-ranked Mississippi State

00:20without their best player in Jani Broome.

00:23Injured in the second half over the weekend, ERS, against South Carolina.

00:27Probably going to miss a couple of weeks for the Tigers.

00:31But first game without Broome, no issue for the new number one team in the nation.

00:35Auburn wins by 22, easily covering as an 8.5-point favorite at home.

00:42Five players filling the void of Jani Broome, scoring in double figures.

00:46Yeah, you never want to see your best player go down or a superstar player in the country go down

00:50as we like to view that and certainly enjoy college basketball.

00:53But at the same time, this is when if you are going to suffer an injury,

00:56which doesn't look like it's going to be all that long-term,

00:58to see how your team is going to respond.

01:00And it's great to have one of those response games at home, particularly against a top-20 team.

01:04They came right out of the gate, 46-27 in the first half and never looked back.

01:08That's equally impressive if they go to 4-0.

01:11So if you are a coach looking at your basketball team and saying,

01:13okay, what happens if we don't have this guy around?

01:15And maybe late in the season, if he fouls out late in a big game,

01:18or let's just say another sprained ankle or has to miss a game or two,

01:21you can always look back at these games and say, guys, we've been here before.

01:24We've stepped up to the occasion, already been able to do this.

01:26Now, we like to talk about this as well, Ben, by saying you can get that one or two game,

01:31hey, let's cover for the big guy here.

01:33But if this turns into three, four, or five games,

01:35let's really see what the Auburn Tigers have made of.

01:37But they passed the first test as the number one team at home against the top 15

01:40without their best player in impressive fashion.

01:43And Chris Jans' team, known for defense, really always in his coaching career,

01:49the Bulldogs allowed 95 at home over the weekend.

01:53They also just gave up 88 on the road to an Auburn team without Jedi Broom.

01:59A couple of road teams, though, victorious as double-digit dogs last night.

02:04Ole Miss winning outright in Tuscaloosa as an 11-and-a-half point dog by 10,

02:0974-64, keeping the nation's second most efficient offense in the Crimson Tide

02:15to only 64 points, 5 of 20 from 3, and well under a pregame total of 163 and a hook.

02:23And how about unranked Missouri?

02:25The Tigers go on the road to Gainesville and pull off the upset over fifth-ranked Florida

02:30as a 10-and-a-half point underdog, winning outright by a single point, 83-82,

02:36behind a big night from the grad transfer formerly of Iowa State,

02:40who has been in Columbia for a few years, 22 points from Mizzou's Caleb Grill.

02:44Boy, going on the road and beating top five teams, you saw Ole Miss and Missouri,

02:48but also two different tales here from these games.

02:50You saw Ole Miss, which is maybe even more impressive, down four points at the break

02:54and then winning 42-28 in the opposing team's building, where you had Missouri

02:58run after that early lead of 50-34 in the first half and hold on in the second half.

03:02As we like to say, it's hard to win on the road.

03:04It's even harder to win on the road against top five opponents.

03:07Those two teams did that, which shows you really the depth of the SEC right now,

03:11which is impressive.

03:13Other scores around the SEC.

03:15Kentucky in a top-15 tilt against Texas.

03:18A&M outlast the Aggies after trailing early 81-69.

03:22The Cats and Mark Pope looking pretty good,

03:25covering as a six-and-a-half point home favorite in Rupp.

03:28John Calipari and his Arkansas Razorbacks.

03:32Winless 0-4, 0-4 DRS to start off SEC play,

03:37losing by four against the Bayou Bengals of LSU.

03:40Yeah, his press conference is probably going to get better and better and better

03:43as long as they keep losing in SEC play.

03:45Some of the excuses here.

03:46We always remember the minute he arrived at Arkansas and said,

03:48I don't have a single player here.

03:50I don't even know if we're going to field a team this year.

03:52Well, he already set the table for what they were going to do.

03:54They're 11-6 with the key component in a tough SEC.

03:57They're 0-4 right out of the gate.

03:59And I don't care what he's trying to rebuild.

04:01For Calipari, that's unacceptable.

Category

Transcript

Recommended