Jan. 6, 2017
By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. - Anfernee McLemore and his Auburn teammates were a captive audience in the locker room after losing to Vanderbilt on Wednesday.
The speaker? Coach Bruce Pearl.
Length of time? Quite long.
"The message was come out ready to ready to play, prepare ourselves better and have a different kind of mindset coming into the next game," McLemore said. "I feel like we prepared well, but we didn't come out ready to execute. We're on the right track now."
Auburn will try to show that in Saturday's 5 p.m. game against Ole Miss on the SEC Network from Auburn Arena. Auburn is 10-4. Ole Miss is 9-5. Both teams are 0-2 in the Southeastern Conference.
The Tigers got a talking-to Wednesday after starting slowly. Auburn, which started four freshmen for the fourth straight game, was down 21-2 after a handful of minutes, and though they played the Commodores on even terms the rest of the way, it was too late.
"I feel like we're a young team," McLemore said. "It takes a little time for us to get into a college program and our leaders - our seniors are helping us along. It's something we need to build off and get better at."
'We're clearly at a crossroads early In the season,' says Auburn's Bruce Pearl. 'Is this post-season team or is it going to show its youth' pic.twitter.com/43YcBHcAUw
- Auburn Gold Mine (@AUGoldMine) January 6, 2017
Pearl said Saturday's game could set a positive tone.
"We're clearly at a crossroads early in the season as far as what the future is going to hold," he said. "Is this going to be a postseason team, is this going to be a team that gets better throughout the season? Or is it going to show its youth?"
And, like most games, Ole Miss will be more experienced.
"They're going to have juniors and seniors at every position," Pearl said. "Guys that have been out there, been there and done that. Our kids are talented enough to be able to compete and be out there, but just lack for any experience and you can see that the way we started the game against Vanderbilt and the way we ended the game against Georgia."
Auburn will try to get a league win before hitting the road for games at Missouri and Kentucky next week.
"I know that we have our backs against the wall and whoever comes out swinging first, will end up playing better," McLemore said.
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine