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Tom Hart names the biggest concern he has about Auburn entering SEC Tournament
By Adam Spencer
Published:
The Auburn Tigers finished the regular season with an overall record of 27-4 and a 15-3 mark in SEC play. The latter mark was enough for Bruce Pearl’s squad to claim the outright SEC regular-season title.
Meanwhile, star freshman Jabari Smith Jr. is looking like a No. 1 NBA Draft pick with his recent surge.
But, SEC Network broadcaster Tom Hart joined “McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning” on WJOX on Tuesday to discuss a major concern he has about the Tigers heading into the SEC Tournament:
The @SECNetwork's @Tom_Hart made his weekly visit with @MacandCube to share his final thoughts on @AuburnMBB before postseason play begins. pic.twitter.com/hwijt4WIIB
— WJOX 94.5 FM (@WJOX945) March 8, 2022
“The weird thing to me with Auburn, and I don’t know if you guys have noticed this, is that as Jabari Smith has turned into what the NBA prognosticators thought he could be — and they all have freedom, but Jabari is a guy who is now being more ball-dominant than he was — the guards have gone backwards,” Hart said. “The overall team play I think is concerning. It doesn’t make much sense, right? They should be a better team with a better Jabari Smith, but for some reason, that hasn’t translated.
“Wendell Green, I’m not even worried at this point about him taking good shots or bad shots — he’s just got to make shots. If he can go back to where he was earlier in the season, even though he was taking probably 3 or 4 bad shots a game and had some late-game questionable decision-making. Pearl loves that freedom for his guards to go out there and play loose and play free, so that’s what I want to see from him this week. …
“The depth for Auburn is what made them go early on. I just haven’t seen that over the last, probably, week and a half of the season.”
Can Auburn’s guards turn things around and help the team cut down some more nets in Tampa this week? We’ll see how guys like Green, KD Johnson, Zep Jasper and Allen Flanigan fare starting on Friday in the tournament quarterfinals.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
