Auburn basketball notebook

Auburn basketball notebookAuburn basketball notebook
Wade Rackley/Auburn Athletics

Jared Harper led Auburn with 20 points and 13 assists in the season opener.

AUBURN, Ala. – With a 13-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, Jared Harper showed why he's one of college basketball's elite point guards Tuesday in No. 11 Auburn's 101-58 season-opening win over South Alabama.

Harper made one more assist during Auburn's postgame media session, when he passed praise to teammates Chuma Okeke and Samir Doughty, seated next to him at the podium.

"It's more of a credit to these guys right here, and my teammates," said Harper, who scored 20 points and grabbed five defensive rebounds. "I feel like I have the easy part of making the pass. They just help me out by making the shot, so that's always good." 

OUTSTANDING OKEKE

Okeke matched Harper's team leading totals of 20 points in 30 minutes, a career scoring high. The 6-8 sophomore led Auburn with nine rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots, tying Anfernee McLemore for most rejections.

"I've known Chuma since I was young, he's been doing stuff like that his whole life," said Harper. "I played against him in high school. He'd have 40 points, 20 rebounds, five blocks.

"He's a matchup problem. If you're smaller than him, we're going to look to give him the ball in the post and he's bigger than people. If you're bigger, he's quicker and faster than you, so we like to use him to our advantage."

Okeke shot 7 of 11 from the field, including 3-for-5 on 3-pointers, adding five assists.

"The way our offense is set up, it's created for people to always be in the right spots at the right time," Okeke said. "It's about other people getting open and knocking down the shots."

DOUGHTY'S DEBUT

After sitting out last season following a transfer from Virginia Commonwealth, Samir Doughty debuted with 14 points in 19 minutes, making 5 of 7 shots and 2 of 3 3-point attempts.

"All of us are big pieces to this team," Doughty said. "I'm a big piece for this team. Sometimes if I play good, others will play good. We really feed off each other." 

Doughty recently returned to practice after missing much of the preseason with an ankle injury.

"I was running pretty good out there," Doughty said. "I don't know exactly where I'm at as far as health but I'm good enough to go. Probably about 90 percent." 

WAITING FOR WILEY

After having only eight scholarship players available against South Alabama, Auburn could soon have 6-11 center Austin Wiley in the lineup.

Coach Bruce Pearl said Wiley, who has been sidelined with a foot injury, could play Friday against No. 25 Washington if he's able to participate in a full-contact practice this week.

"It would be great to have Austin back," Harper said. "How he sat out last year, he's been fighting to get back, battled a couple injuries, but I know he's going to be ready when his name is called."

HERE COME THE HUSKIES

South Alabama played man-to-man exclusively against Auburn. Washington will rely on a zone defense, potentially giving Auburn's 3-point shooters, who made 18 3s in the opener, another opportunity to display their range.

"They have a couple of guys that have a chance to play in the pros," Pearl said.  I hope we can sell it out Friday. I was really happy to see that kickoff in Athens is at 6 p.m. I'm hoping that our fans will look at and maybe drive over the day of the game and come see us on Friday night."
  
 



 



Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer