The Tigers are falling apart down the stretch.
Auburn (24-3, 12-2 SEC) lose to Florida 63-62 after a turnover-riddled game with poor officiating. The narrative doesn't change.
Once again, Auburn shot poorly from the floor, going 20-of-50 (40.0%) from the floor, and 5-of-14 (35.7%) from three.
Does this team have anything left in the tank on the road? I fear that neutral site Auburn is going to play similar to road Auburn. If that is the case, there's not a lot of hope for the Tigers heading into March.
Here are five takeaways from Auburn's third loss of the season.
The guard play was abysmal
Wendell Green Jr., Zep Jasper and KD Johnson were a combined 5-of-19 from the floor with 8 turnovers. There were some incredibly poor decisions made by Green that proved to be costly at the end of the game.
How Auburn does not draw up something better than what was executed at the end of the game with Wendell Green holding onto the ball doing nothing is very confusing to me.
Green has made it clear after the loss at Arkansas and now at Florida that he does not need the ball in his hands when things get tight. He's not capable of making a good decision. This might kill Auburn in March.
Officiating in college basketball is absolutely terrible
The NCAA has a massive problem on its hands when it comes to officiating in college basketball. The product that officials put out on the court night in and night out is incredibly inconsistent and usually wrong.
Nobody is asking for a perfect game to be called. What fans are asking for is consistency. We have witnessed Auburn go from playing in a game where a combined 50 fouls were called (vs Vanderbilt) to a game where a combined 33 fouls were called, and the officiating was extremely one sided when it came to touch fouls.
Auburn continues to turn the ball over during their cold stretch
Over the last five games (which include losses to Arkansas and Florida), Auburn is averaging 15.2 turnovers per game, which is significantly more than their season average of 11.9.
Auburn's ball-handlers have become extremely careless and sloppy with the basketball. Against Florida, KD Johnson and Allen Flanigan threw the ball out of bounds several times. Flanigan threw it across the court, over the heads of his coaches, into the stands. It was pitiful to watch Auburn try and handle the Florida pressure.
The "depth" Auburn has isn't performing on the road
Things have been downhill since the Missouri game. Over the past four road games, Auburn's bench is averaging 11.7 points. In the first five road games before that, Auburn's bench was averaging 27.8 points.
While it is fair to expect a drop-off in bench production as the season goes on, a 16.1 point difference since Auburn played Missouri is startling.
Auburn isn't going to be a one seed in the NCAA Tournament
This is not drama. In my opinion, this is reality. Auburn will lose to Tennessee, lose to Mississippi State, and lose in the first round of the SEC Tournament. Their offense is playing so bad right now, I can see the Tigers easily losing by double-digits to a 7 or 10 seed.
This is one of the best teams Auburn has ever put together, and it's going to come to an early end during the NCAA Tournament because of poor shooting and lack of awareness.
Normally, Bruce Pearl teams peak late. This one is falling apart. Remember what happened last time Auburn fell apart late in a season?
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