Takeaways from Auburn's 67-62 loss to Texas A&M

Here are five takeaways from the Tigers' loss to the Aggies.

Lance Dawe | Mar 11, 2022

Takeaways from Auburn's 67-62 loss to Texas A&M /

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That went about as poorly as it possibly could have.

Auburn lost their first game of the SEC Tournament to Texas A&M in embarrassing fashion, going stone cold from the floor while struggling to guard A&M's outside shot.

It wasn't the Tigers' desire or effort. They just didn't knock down shots.

"We've got to hit open shots," Wendell Green Jr noted in the post game press conference. "They were leaving us wide-open in the first half and we were missing."

Auburn (27-5, 15-3 SEC) now looks ahead to the NCAA Tournament, where they will likely be a two seed. Auburn is now 5-4 in its last nine games.

Here are five takeaways from the loss.

Texas A&M had an incredible game plan

The Aggies knew that Auburn's guards were struggling to hit the outside shot. Therefore, A&M crowded the paint, aggressively guarded Jabari Smith, hedged on screens and trapped Auburn's guards.

It led to Auburn becoming stagnant in the half court offense because they couldn't hit wide-open shots.

Another bad day for Auburn's backcourt

KD Johnson went 0-14 from the floor, the worst shooting performance by a major conference guard in more than a decade. Wendell Green finished 5-of-12 shooting, and Zep Jasper finished 2-of-8.

Not having an off-ball guard that can shoot is killing this team.

A&M's hot shooting continues

The Aggies finished the game shooting 50.0% from three. Some of the shots were open looks, some of them were contested. Auburn just couldn't stop A&M when they needed to.

Auburn dug too big of a hole to dig out of, and still came back

It all goes back to Auburn's shooting. The Tigers were sub-20% from both the field and from three in the first half, and it made the hill to climb extremely difficult.

Auburn won the rebounding battle, had significantly less turnovers (9 to A&M's 16), had 20 points off of turnover, more blocks, more steals, and shot over 50% in the second half. It wasn't enough to overcome a terrible first period.

Where do the Tigers go from here?

Expectations are crushing this team's confidence. Now they face the NCAA Tournament, which will do them no favors in building that confidence back with the way they are playing right now.

How does Auburn recover from a 5-4 end to the season? Teams have figured out how to completely shut down the half court offense, and now they're figuring out how to get open looks against the Tigers defense.

It's not a good outlook for Bruce Pearl & Co.

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