< 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: NO SOPHOMORE SL UMP THE 1-3-1: NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP FOR AUBURN TRIO 1 BIG THING: SOPHOMORE IMPROVEMENT Sophomore Allen Flanigan scored 23 points Saturday at Kentucky. It was his fourth 20-point game this season and the 20th time in 22 games he’s scored in double figures. As a freshman last year, he scored in double figures just once in 31 games. After averaging 3.2 points per game last year, Flanigan is putting up 14.3 points per contest this year – an improvement of 11.1, which is tops in the SEC. Fellow sophomores Jaylin Williams and Devan Cambridge have also made big strides. Williams is fifth in the conference, scoring 10.7 points per game – up 8.3 from last year when he averaged just 2.4 points per game. Cambridge posted 4.2 points per game last year, and this year he’s up to 8.2 per contest. Over the last 11 games, he’s averaging 9.9 points a night. “What Jaylin and Al and Devan are doing as sophomores now, it’s a pretty big jump from their freshman year,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “All three of them right now, a pretty big jump, taking advantage of the opportunity. We’ve got to keep building on that.” The Tigers are the youngest team in the country, averaging 0.75 years of experience, but with that youth comes opportunity. Flanigan, Williams and Cambridge have all been given an opportunity this season and elevated their game as a result. 3 QUESTIONS WITH JAYLIN WILLIAMS How would you describe your game? Williams: I’m an all-around player. Some nights I’ll give you 20, but then I’ll have four rebounds. But then some nights I’ll have two points, and I’ll have 10 or 12 rebounds. If I have a game where I don’t score or don’t get rebounds, I’ll have eight assists. Where I’m struggling, I try to fix it. But if I’m struggling, I try to do something better in other areas whether that’s offense or defense. What are the areas you need to work on to take that next step? Williams: I would say defending a big in the post because I’m playing the 5 on the team, so most bigs are bigger and more physical. Just improving on that in the offseason and the rest of these games this season is going to be big for me. This team has fought through a lot of adversity. What has this season been like? Williams: The first half of the season we didn’t have a true point guard. We had Al playing point, we had JP (Justin Powell) playing point guard. And then when we played Ole Miss, we didn’t have JP or Rife (Sharife Cooper), so Al had to play point, Jamal (Johnson) had to play point, I had to bring the ball up sometimes to break the press. Our goal for the rest of the season? We’re going to finish strong and go into next year with our heads high. 1 KEY STAT: HISTORY AT RUPP Last week, Bruce Pearl called Rupp Arena one of the great houses in all of basketball. “You’re going to remember the games you played there,” he said. Well, freshman JT Thor might remember his performance Saturday for a long time. Thor became the only freshman in the last decade to have at least 24 points and nine rebounds in a road game at Rupp Arena. He’s one of just four players overall to hold that stat line since at least 2010, joining Isiah Brown (ETSU), Brandon Edwards (UT Arlington) and Trendon Watford (LSU). Sharife Cooper also made some history in his Rupp debut, becoming the only freshman since at least 2010 to have 14 points, eight assists and six rebounds in a game at Rupp Arena. 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 >