AUBURN, Ala. – Returning to competition after a nine-day holiday hiatus, the Auburn men’s basketball team concludes non-conference play on Monday against Queens University at Neville Arena.
Located in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Royals – like Auburn – have played a challenging schedule, with road losses at Villanova, Virginia, Wake Forest and Arkansas.
“They’re definitely capable of putting up a lot of points,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said. “They’re connected. They have guys who have returned so they understand each other, and they make shots at a high level. They’re a very dangerous team on the offensive end.”
One of four Royals averaging double figures, 6-5 guard Nasir Mann leads Queens in scoring at 15.3 points per game while shooting 38.5-percent from 3-point range.
“They have great positional size at the guard spots,” Pearl said. “They have a lot of weapons. The second you stand up out of your stance, that’s when they take advantage of you and they’re able to knock down shots.”
The layoff between games helped Auburn recover from injuries, especially Tahaad Pettiford and KeShawn Murphy.
“He (Murphy) was bouncing around the gym yesterday and dunking all over the place,” said Pearl, who gave Murphy a pep-talk after showing him video of Auburn’s game against Houston in which the 6-10 forward flourished. “’That’s the guy that we need. You were the Murph we know you’re capable of in the Houston game. Let’s get more of that.’”
After 26 days away from Neville Arena, the Tigers return to their home court, seeking to extend the nation’s longest home nonconference winning streak to 64.
Auburn (8-4) and Queens (5-7) tip off at 9 p.m. CT Monday on SEC Network and the Auburn Sports Network, where Andy Burcham and Randall Dickey will bring the action to listeners.
“It’s been a group that’s shown some resilience,” Pearl said. “We’ve responded pretty well after adverse situations. We’ve got to stop having so many adverse situations.
“It’s a team that has pieces to win games. Good teams win, great teams get better. For us to be a great team, we’ve got to continue to get better.”
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer