< Previous 9 MEN’S B ASKETB ALL S T AFF IRA BOWMAN Assistant Coach STEVEN PEARL Assistant Coach WES FLANIGAN Assistant Coach DAMON DAVIS Strength & Conditioning Coach RANDY ROBERTS Chaplain CLARK PEARSON Athletic Trainer IAN BORDERS Video Coordinator MADDUX JEFFREYS Graduate Assistant KT HARRELL Graduate Assistant CHAD PREWETT Director of Operations MARQUIS DANIELS Director of Player Development MIKE BURGOMASTER Assistant Director of Operations TRA’CEE TANNER Equipment Manager HOLLY MCKEE Sports Dietitian CLICK EACH PHOTO FOR FULL BIO10 FEA TURE: DEV AN CAMBRIDGE ‘A NEW ME’: PUTTING TEAM FIRST HELPS DEVAN CAMBRIDGE THRIVE Devan Cambridge started Saturday’s game against Ole Miss and finished with a season- high 16 points. He led Auburn with seven rebounds and two blocks. It was his 12th start of the season but the first since Jan. 6 when the Tigers last played Ole Miss. Cambridge wasn’t pulled because of his performance. It was his decision. The sophomore guard went to the coaching staff prior to the Alabama game and willingly gave up his starting spot for teammate Sharife Cooper after Cooper was cleared to play by the NCAA. He knew it would be better for him, better for Cooper and ultimately better for the team. “Out of everybody, Sharife just continued to work,” Cambridge said. “Me personally, I probably would’ve broken down. I probably would’ve left. But he stayed committed, he stayed to Auburn, and I just felt like he deserved to play. “And with him playing, I knew it was going to be a different ball game. I knew my minutes weren’t going to decrease or anything. It was just me coming off the bench, and when I’m playing with him, he makes me better, I make him better. He can throw me passes, I’m going to run the floor, we make each other better. So I was willing to do that.” Over the next eight games, coming off the bench, Cambridge scored in double figures in six of them. In the first 11 games as a starter, he finished in double figures just three time. He averaged 9.8 points per game off the bench – the best stretch of his Auburn career to this point. But while some might believe that his elevated play was a product of his role changing, he knows it’s had much more to do with Cooper’s return and his own development as a player than it did with him coming off the bench. “With Sharife, we have that type of chemistry,” Cambridge said. “He sees plays before they happen. I would run the break before, and I wouldn’t get it. I know if I run the floor now, I’m going to get the ball. I do that every time to get those easy transition buckets. Or even with catch-and-shoot 3s, he’s going to find me. “I don’t know how to really explain it, but it’s nothing about any position that I’m put in. I’m just playing better, I’m working hard on my game. It’s a new me.” That was evident Saturday. Cambridge continued to flourish alongside Cooper, this time as a starter. In the closing minutes of the first half, Cooper found Cambridge for a spot-up 3 and then threw a bounce pass the length of the court to Cambridge who scored in transition. It doesn’t matter if he’s starting or coming off the bench. Cambridge has been playing some the best basketball of his career over Auburn’s last nine games since Cooper returned. 15 A UTLIVE The Bruce Pearl Family Foundation is once again continuing the fight against cancer with the sixth year of AUTLIVE, Auburn basketball’s fight against cancer. The best way to beat cancer is to detect it early and be able to fight it on your home court. This year’s AUTLIVE game will take place in Auburn Arena on Saturday, February 27, 2021 vs. Tennessee. You can support the cause by purchasing a t-shirt for $25 beginning early January. AUTLIVE raises the awareness of cancer prevention and detection while t-shirt sales and donations raise money to benefit cancer patients at these locations: Russell Medical Foundation, Smile-A-Mile, Coosa Valley Medical Center, Children’s of Alabama, East Alabama Medical Center, Joy to Life, aTeam Ministries, Cancer Wellness Foundation and Russell Hill. Pearl and his coaching staff initiated the OUTLIVE program in 2009 at Tennessee in recognition of former Vol Chris Lofton, who beat testicular cancer through early diagnosis and local #ThinkSunSouth WHETHER YOU’RE CUTTING, MOWING, MULCHING, TILLING, LOADING, DIGGING, PLANTING, HAULING OR OFF-ROADING... QUALITY JOHN DEERE EQUIPMENT, AFFORDABLY PRICED. 21 LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE SOUTHEAST. >> FIND YOURS << SUNSOUTH.COMNext >