The Auburn Tigers closed out their exhibition slate on Thursday night at Neville Arena with an 80-68 win over the Samford Bulldogs, powered by 45 combined points from Tahaad Pettiford and Kevin Overton.
The Tigers now get ready to head into the regular season, where they will open up with a game against Southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at Neville Arena at 7 p.m.
Head Coach Steven Pearl took to the podium following the win to discuss his thoughts on the game and where Auburn can improve in the next wekk before the games actually count towards their record.
Here are some of his most notable quotes from the session.
SUBSCRIBE TO AUBURN UNDERCOVER TODAY
On what the team got out of the three exhibition games:
“Part of why we play these exhibition games is to get exposed. I feel like we learned a lot over these last three games, playing Florida State, who's going to be picked in the top 5 in the ACC; playing Alabama, who's going to be picked in the top 5 of our league; and then Samford, who has a chance to be in the upper couple of their league. Lot of really good film to lean on.”
On his impression of true freshman Caleb Williams:
“He's incredibly coachable, which really helps when a freshman is willing to take the coaching the way that he does. You've got to let him play through mistakes and you've got to let him be confident. As you saw, even though they may not have been great shots, he's capable of making tough shots. He showed that in tonight's game, especially late in that second half.”
On what Kolby King does for the team now that he’s eligible:
“It allows us to do more in practice. It allows us to do more in practice. Having that depth is really important. It allows you to really compete more and go best-on-best a little bit more. And it allows those guys to kind of, like last week going into Alabama, have more competitive practices and allow those guys to continues to improve on some of the things we've got to clean up.”
On how much of an impact Thomas Dowd has made on this team:
“One of the questions that I ask and I'm sure I've said this before, is who is one guy that you always want to be on your team? Thomas Dowd, every single time. And you know, that speaks volumes of who he is as a player and that's the value that he brings to our team. He can play three different positions. You know what I'm saying? Plays 3, 4 and 5 when we need him. So he just does so many things that impact winning. And you know, I'm glad he's on our team.”
On what needs to get better with the defense:
“We gotta do a better job in our lack of discipline—reaching too often or slapping down and not getting vertical at the rim. They run a really good offense and it's hard to guard, but we got to do a better job of one, forcing them into more turnovers and not allowing them to get as many clean looks from 3.”
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
