The Auburn Tigers have not let an internal investigation slow them down this season. Following the Department of Justice’s arrest of assistant coach Chuck Person, there were a lot of people believing that Bruce Pearl should be fired or step down. Pearl further fanned the flames by refusing to cooperate with the school’s internal investigation, but a lot of those bad feeling seemed to have past after a 10-1 start. Auburn is looking to chalk up another win here when it welcomes the Connecticut Huskies to town.
This war on the floor will go down Saturday, December 23, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. ET at Auburn Arena in Auburn, Alabama. The game will be televised live on ESPN2. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Saturday schedule.
Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Connecticut has not been an impressive team to watch this season. The Huskies did pick up a win over Oregon out on the West Coast, but have failed to any other game of note. They are currently 1-6 ATS and needed overtime to get past both Monmouth and Columbia.
Less than 48 hours before the Huskies face Auburn, they will be on the other side of the country. Connecticut will travel to the desert to take on Arizona on Thursday night and then quickly travel to Auburn to get ready for a mid-day game. That puts the Huskies behind the eight ball.
Auburn has yet to beat a team from a power conference, so it is looking forward to this one. The Tigers have played a lot of decent mid-majors to date and have defeated them all save Temple. This team has now covered five of its last seven.
Key Stat
Connecticut continues to be plagued by inefficiency. No rotation player is hitting better than half of his shots from the floor, and four players are hitting 36 percent or less from the field.
For whatever reason, Kevin Ollie has never been able to establish an offense during his time in Storrs. He has relied on guards to create on their own and that has hurt this team more often than not as they have been asked to do too much.
Jalen Adams is playing a ton of minutes every night, and that has taken its toll. He would be more efficient if he was sharing the load with somebody else, but instead he has been tasked with creating on his own. Adams is hitting 44.8 percent of his shots, not bad for a player with that kind of usage rate, yet it isn’t great either.
Last Meeting
These teams met in Storrs last year, and neither team could buy a bucket from the floor. Auburn ended up winning 70-67 in overtime despite being a 3.5-point underdog, but the story was how poorly these teams were shooting from the floor.
In that game, Auburn hit just 32.9 percent of its field goals, while Connecticut hit just 35.4 percent of its shots from the floor. Connecticut’s Rodney Purvis and Auburn’s Mustapha Herson took the most shots on their team and both ended up going 5-22 from the floor.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Auburn is going to be a rather large favorite in this one, and rightfully so. Connecticut is sure to be exhausted playing on such short rest with two cross-country flights in the span of a week, particularly since this team relies on three players to play big minutes.
Although Auburn still has two of its best players indefinitely suspended as the result of the ongoing investigation, the Tigers still have enough talent to win big here. This team has four players averaging double figures and has done a good job on the glass too. Lay the points with Auburn here.
College Basketball Odds: Auburn 86, Connecticut 72
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