Auburn is back on the road this week, with games scheduled in Baton Rouge and Oxford, and I can’t be the only one feeling a little more confident than usual about Auburn’s chances in true road games.
And it’s not just because this team is talented and well coached, it’s not just because Johni Broome is back, it’s all the experience and confidence this team plays with that enables them to travel so well from top to bottom.
This Auburn team is currently shooting better from three on the road than any team in program history has and has guys who seem to feel at home away from home — even against great teams and stout defenses.
There are plenty of road games against good defenses left on the schedule, with one scheduled for Saturday, but this Auburn team is off to a hot start when it comes to shooting in SEC play.
It deserves some attention and probably answers the question of why we’re a little extra confident.
The numbers
Three-point shooting percentages in true-road games only for three of Auburn’s top four three-point shooters:
Miles Kelly: 56.5 percent (No. 5 nationally, No. 2 among power conference players, minimum 20 attempts)
Tahaad Pettiford: 54.5 percent (No. 12 nationally, No. 4 among power conference players, minimum 20 attempts)
Chad Baker-Mazara: 42.9 percent
Taking this one step further, Kelly’s current road-game three-point percentage is No. 1 in Auburn history for players with more than 20 attempts in a single season. Pettiford is No. 3 with Antoine Mason (54.8 percent on 31 attempts) splitting the two.
Compare that to last season, when three of Auburn’s top five in three-point shot attempts shot less than 30 percent on the road:
Jaylin Williams shot 21.7 percent
Aden Holloway shot 27.1 percent
KD Johnson shot 17.9 percent
Baker-Mazara (41.7 percent) and Denver Jones (37.9 percent) were the only guys in the top five to shoot better than 30 percent on the road and the only two returnees from that group. Jones is the only guy in this year’s top three under 30 percent, but he has taken just nine threes in true road games — so there’s reason to believe his splits will bounce back
The results so far have this Auburn team at 3-1 on the road with its only loss coming in a closely contested game at Cameron Indoor. The .750 winning percentage is tied for second best all time at Auburn. If Auburn wins its remaining six road games—which sounds crazy, but the Tigers are predicted to do just that per KenPom—they will be tied for second place in Auburn history for single-season road wins and will own the road game winning percentage record. The 1999 team had a 10-2 record, which currently leads both categories. The 2022 team had eight road wins in 11 tries.
Auburn as a team is currently shooting 40.0 percent from three in true road games — which eliminates Maui games, Houston, and Purdue from the stat pull. Surprisingly enough, Auburn is only shooting 36.3 percent from three on neutral courts and 36.9 percent from deep at home.
The 40 percent mark leads Auburn, historically, with the 2016-17 team currently holding the single season record at 37.8 percent. The only other Bruce Pearl team to crack 35 percent shooting from three in road games was the 2017-18 team. The 2006-07 and the 2007-08 teams round out the rest of the top five.
It doesn’t stop at road-game shooting for this team either, the deadeye ability away from home is just plain impressive though. Auburn is shooting 37.7 percent from three through its first six SEC games.
That’s the best mark since the 2019/Final Four team shot 40.2 percent from deep in its first six games. In between those seasons, Auburn’s three-point percentages through its first six conference games have been:
2024: 32.3 percent
2023: 31.0 percent
2022: 32.4 percent
2021: 33.1 percent
2020: 27.8 percent
I’d lump Broome into this elite-road-shooter category too, because he shoots 71.4 percent on free throws on the road to 54.5 percent at home. He also shoots almost exactly the same inside the arc (62.5 to 62.7) on home courts versus neutral site courts with 70-plus shot attempts on each.
The defense and post play has always traveled though, but now Auburn has found some shooting that travels to add to it.
Why this team?
A lot of the work for making these road warrior teams come to life seems to happen in the offseason. Looking back at the 2017 team shows a team full of good shooters and confident players. At this point, Chuck Person was also an assistant at Auburn and had at least one story about pulling someone out of the shooting slump.
Credit is due to Auburn’s coaching staff. Not only did they go out and find guys like Kelly—who has a grocery list of road-game shooting performances from his time at Georgia Tech—and Pettiford—who plays with as much confidence and shooting ability as any freshman guard—but Auburn also added Coach Rob Allen to the staff this offseason. Allen has trained high level players at the high school, college, and NBA levels.
When you have a handful of go-to shooting options and they’re all either veteran shooters and/or extremely confident players, your chances of shooting well on the road will increase.
While JP Pegues has had his struggles, his most famous college basketball play was a shot against Virginia — albeit on a neutral court.
This team also has the added benefit of playing with and through Broome. Broome’s gravity draws defenders into the paint for pretty regular double and triple teams, which forces defenses to scramble and leaves his teammates open for passes from the best passing big in the nation. But still… Auburn shot 43.5 percent from three against a great UGA defense on the road without Broome, and we’ve seen teams full of guys who miss wide open threes in the past.
There’s no exact blueprint for being a strong road team, but Auburn’s experience, confidence, and roster build made it happen for this team.
Auburn was selective about who it added this past offseason and was aggressive about keeping its good shooters on the roster, and everything meshed to give the Tigers a team that can catch fire in any gym — something that feels like it was a long time coming.
Great analysis. Watched UK shoot 50% from 3 to beat UT last night on the road. The volume of 3s was really low (for them) but when you make half of them against a bad offense, you have the luxury of not having to hoist a bunch.