[h=1]Lose at home? Win on the road? Auburn ‘like a box of chocolates’ entering Mississippi State game[/h]
Conventional wisdom — and probably most metrics — would tell you that winning at home is much easier than winning on the road.
Players get to wake up in their own beds, warm up on their own court, get ready in their own locker room and play in front of their own fans.
But that hasn’t been the case for the Auburn’s men’s basketball team entering Tuesday’s home contest against Mississippi State. Since winning their sixth consecutive home game to open the season on Dec. 18 against Mercer, the Tigers have lost three of five games inside Auburn Arena.
During that same stretch, they’ve won five of eight games away from home — one at a neutral site (over Oklahoma) and four more at UConn, Missouri, TCU and, most recently, Alabama on Saturday.
<article id="card-summary-1673267c-ecae-11e6-b4e9-f7a5deeecf4c" class="clearfix card summary has-image">Auburn's win on the road at Alabama on Saturday was arguably its biggest of the season to date.
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“It is unusual for a young team to be playing better on the road than we are at home,” coach Bruce Pearl said Monday. “My team is sort of like a box of chocolates. I'm not sure what I'm going to get.”
The difference, surprisingly enough, are the distractions. There are more of those at home than there on the road, Pearl said.
On road trips, Auburn spends the night before and day of the game in the hotel, eating scheduled meals and preparing together as a team. At home, though, there’s less structure. Players have 8 a.m. classes and friends and family in the stands.
“We need to stay away from the distractions,” true freshman forward Anfernee McLemore said. “At home it can be a lot easier to feed into the fans. And so just try to play our own game like while away on road games. Just focus on winning more and we need to do the same at home games.”
The Tigers are hoping for better luck in that endeavor Tuesday against the Bulldogs, a game Pearl described as “crucial.”
Despite coming back from 19 points down to upset the same Tennessee team that handled Auburn last Tuesday, Mississippi State (14-8, 5-5 SEC) still ranks 113th in RPI. Auburn (15-8, 4-6) ranks 63rd.
“A home loss to a team in that range really hurts you postseason,” Pearl said. “Somehow we put ourselves at our near the bubble again, and we'd like to try and stay on it a little bit longer than the last couple of times we've gotten to these Tuesdays.”
It’s an intriguing matchup on paper. As of last month, Mississippi State (350th) and Auburn (325th) ranked as two of the most inexperienced teams in the nation. The Bulldogs will likely start three freshman and two sophomores, while the Tigers will start four freshman and a senior.
Both teams have dynamic freshman point guards (Lamar Peters for Mississippi State, reigning SEC Freshman of the week Jared Harper), athletic wings (Mario Kegler and Mustapha Heron) and big centers (6-foot-10 Schnider Herard and 6-foot-11 Austin Wiley).
“Playing Auburn is a big challenge. They are really playing well,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “We’ve got our hands full and we’re going to have to play really well to be able to compete with them.”
Especially if Auburn plays at home like it has on the road of late.
Conventional wisdom — and probably most metrics — would tell you that winning at home is much easier than winning on the road.
Players get to wake up in their own beds, warm up on their own court, get ready in their own locker room and play in front of their own fans.
But that hasn’t been the case for the Auburn’s men’s basketball team entering Tuesday’s home contest against Mississippi State. Since winning their sixth consecutive home game to open the season on Dec. 18 against Mercer, the Tigers have lost three of five games inside Auburn Arena.
During that same stretch, they’ve won five of eight games away from home — one at a neutral site (over Oklahoma) and four more at UConn, Missouri, TCU and, most recently, Alabama on Saturday.
<article id="card-summary-1673267c-ecae-11e6-b4e9-f7a5deeecf4c" class="clearfix card summary has-image">Auburn's win on the road at Alabama on Saturday was arguably its biggest of the season to date.
</article>
“It is unusual for a young team to be playing better on the road than we are at home,” coach Bruce Pearl said Monday. “My team is sort of like a box of chocolates. I'm not sure what I'm going to get.”
The difference, surprisingly enough, are the distractions. There are more of those at home than there on the road, Pearl said.
On road trips, Auburn spends the night before and day of the game in the hotel, eating scheduled meals and preparing together as a team. At home, though, there’s less structure. Players have 8 a.m. classes and friends and family in the stands.
“We need to stay away from the distractions,” true freshman forward Anfernee McLemore said. “At home it can be a lot easier to feed into the fans. And so just try to play our own game like while away on road games. Just focus on winning more and we need to do the same at home games.”
The Tigers are hoping for better luck in that endeavor Tuesday against the Bulldogs, a game Pearl described as “crucial.”
Despite coming back from 19 points down to upset the same Tennessee team that handled Auburn last Tuesday, Mississippi State (14-8, 5-5 SEC) still ranks 113th in RPI. Auburn (15-8, 4-6) ranks 63rd.
“A home loss to a team in that range really hurts you postseason,” Pearl said. “Somehow we put ourselves at our near the bubble again, and we'd like to try and stay on it a little bit longer than the last couple of times we've gotten to these Tuesdays.”
It’s an intriguing matchup on paper. As of last month, Mississippi State (350th) and Auburn (325th) ranked as two of the most inexperienced teams in the nation. The Bulldogs will likely start three freshman and two sophomores, while the Tigers will start four freshman and a senior.
Both teams have dynamic freshman point guards (Lamar Peters for Mississippi State, reigning SEC Freshman of the week Jared Harper), athletic wings (Mario Kegler and Mustapha Heron) and big centers (6-foot-10 Schnider Herard and 6-foot-11 Austin Wiley).
“Playing Auburn is a big challenge. They are really playing well,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “We’ve got our hands full and we’re going to have to play really well to be able to compete with them.”
Especially if Auburn plays at home like it has on the road of late.
