Auburn Looks Like the Real Deal

Tennessee Coach Jerry Green only needed to see No. 17-ranked Auburn play in person one time for him to change his mind about the Tigers.

Green was critical of Auburn two weeks ago, wondering if its record and ranking were nothing more than products of a soft nonconference schedule. But Green was singing a different tune on Saturday after the Tigers rolled to a 90-62 victory over the Volunteers in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams at Auburn, Ala.

“If Auburn continues to play like they did tonight, they’re going to make their presence known not only within our league, but nationally as well,” Green said. “They seem to have every piece of ammunition you need to win.”

Bryant Smith had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and four other players scored in double figures to keep Auburn (13-0) in select company with No. 1 Connecticut and and No. 3 Cincinnati as the only unbeaten teams in Division I-A.

The victory was also Auburn’s fourth in a row over Tennessee (8-4) and the 28-point margin was the largest in 71-year series between the teams.

But to hear Green talk beforehand, Tennessee wasn’t worried about Auburn, even though the Tigers are off to their best start in 40 years and beating opponents by an NCAA-leading 29.3 points a game. Green pointed out that Auburn had gone unbeaten against the likes of Wofford and Bethune-Cookman.

“I think it has more to do with Cliff’s scheduling than Auburn being good,” Green said, referring to Auburn Coach Cliff Ellis.

No one on Tennessee’s team thought that after the game.

“They are a national championship team,” guard Tony Harris said. “They deserve their ranking, maybe even a better one.”

Most of Auburn’s players had no idea that Tennessee initially thought they were overrated.

“If we had known that, we would have been even more fired up,” said Smith, a 6-foot-5 senior forward. “As it is, we really took it to them.”

The Tigers used a 24-4 run to go ahead 33-14 in the game’s first 12 minutes. They forced 15 first-half turnovers to take a 52-32 halftime lead.

“I really wasn’t expecting the game to go like this,” Ellis said. “We were just on a tear shooting and we played with a great deal of intensity and effort. This is one of the great wins in Auburn history.”

Auburn, which had its first sellout of the season at 10,108-seat Beard-Eaves Coliseum, plays host to No. 20 Arkansas on Wednesday. Only 500 tickets remain for that game.

“There haven’t been many fans coming to games before, but it’s time for a show now,” said forward Chris Porter, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds. “It’s SEC time, time to step it up, fans included.”

No. 1 Connecticut 87, Georgetown 64--Khalid El-Amin had 17 of his 22 points in the first half and the Huskies (11-0, 3-0) made 20 of 22 free throws in the second half of the Big East game at Storrs, Conn.

Connecticut had a 14-2 lead after four minutes and was ahead by as many as 27 points in the first half. Georgetown (7-5, 0-3) shot 22% in the first half and didn’t get consecutive baskets until almost 18 minutes had elapsed.

No. 7 Kentucky 93, Florida 58--The Wildcats (12-3) led by as many as 39 points in their SEC opener at Lexington, Ky., winning their second game in a row since suffering their first consecutive losses in four years.

The win also avenged last season’s 86-78 home loss to the Florida--one of only three games Kentucky lost on the way to winning its seventh national title.

Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith tried a big starting lineup, moving Heshimu Evans, a 6-foot-6 forward, to the backcourt with point guard Wayne Turner, while going with 6-10 Jamaal Magloire the 6-10 Michael Bradley and 6-9 Scott Padgett in the frontcourt. The Wildcats made seven of their first eight shots to take a 19-9 lead.

Padgett had 19 points, including four three-point baskets, and Bradley made seven of eight shots in scoring 18. Brent Wright led Florida (9-2) with 20 points and five rebounds.

No. 12 St. John’s 77, Rutgers 73--Ron Artest scored a season-high 25 points and Collin Charles had eight points in the final 52 seconds to lead the Red Storm (11-2, 3-0) in the Big East game at Piscataway, N.J. The victory was the eighth in a row for St. John’s, which is off to its best start since 1990-91.

Rutgers (9-4, 2-2) led by 14 points in the game’s first 10 minutes but shot only 29% in the second half.

No. 13 Michigan State 69, Louisville 57--Morris Peterson, making his second start of the season, scored 23 points at East Lansing, Mich., as the Spartans (11-3) won their seventh game in a row. Louisville (6-3) never led in the game in losing for the first time in five games.

Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo started Peterson and A.J. Granger in place of Andre Hutson and Charlie Bell, who have struggled. It was the first time Bell hadn’t started in 44 games in two seasons at Michigan State, but he played 25 minutes and had eight points and matched his career high with nine rebounds.

No. 15 New Mexico 77, New Mexico State 66--Center Kenny Thomas had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Lobos (12-1) at Albuquerque. Thomas also had a team-high six assists, four blocked shots and three steals.

New Mexico is 7-0 against the New Mexico State (7-5) in Thomas’ career. The 6-foot-8, 250-pound senior was ineligible the first semester this season but has averaged 20 points and 11.3 rebounds in seven games since his return, with four double-doubles.

New Mexico State, with nobody to match up with Thomas, had to rely on the three-point shooting of guards Eric Channing and Billy Keys. Channing had seven three-point baskets and 25 points, while Keys made three shots from beyond the arc and had 16 points.

No. 18 Kansas 95, Texas A&M; 57--Seven-footer Eric Chenowith scored a career-high 25 points and had 17 rebounds for the Jayhawks (9-3) at Lawrence, Kan., in the Big 12 opener for both teams.

Ryan Robertson scored 13 of his 20 points in a 30-3 first-half run that put Kansas in command.

Texas A&M; (7-4) had 24 turnovers in losing to a ranked team for the 27th consecutive time.

Ohio State 78, No. 19 Wisconsin 74--Michael Redd scored seven of his season-high 30 points in overtime for the Buckeyes (12-3, 2-0) in the Big Ten game at Madison, Wis.

Redd’s short jumper with 16 seconds left accounted for the final points of regulation and tied the score, 68-68.

Sean Mason had 22 points for Wisconsin (12-3, 0-2).

No. 20 Arkansas 80, Louisiana State 75--The Razorbacks (11-2) shot 64% in the first half at Baton Rouge, La., in the SEC opener for both teams.

It was Coach Nolan Richardson’s 325th victory at Arkansas, tying him with Glen Rose for most victories at the school. Rose got his total in 23 years; this is Richardson’s 14th season.

Senior guard Maurice Carter had a career-high 35 points to go over 1,000 for LSU (8-2), whose winning streak ended at five. Carter made eight of 15 three-point shots.

No. 22 Syracuse 83, West Virginia 67--Jason Hart scored 20 points and the Orangemen (10-3, 2-2) got at least 10 points from five other players in a Big East game at Syracuse, N.Y.

Syracuse shot 58% and had only 13 turnovers--14 less than it had in a 73-59 loss to West Virginia at Morgantown in early December. The Mountaineers (7-6, 2-2) trailed by as many as 22 points in remaining winless in four road games.

No. 24 Texas Christian 101, North Carolina Asheville 67-- Marquise Gainous had 21 points while four other players had at least 11 points as the Horned Frogs (12-2) coasted past the Bulldogs (1-11) at Fort Worth.

No. 25 Oklahoma State 75, Kansas State 69--The Cowboys (9-3) used a 22-2 run to erase a 15-point second-half deficit, blew a six-point lead in the final minutes of regulation, but took command in overtime at Stillwater, Okla., in the Big 12 opener for both teams.

Adrian Peterson had 24 points and nine rebounds for Oklahoma State, which had suffered a rare home loss to Florida Atlantic on Dec. 1. Josh Reid had 21 points and 12 rebounds for Kansas State (11-3), whose winning streak ended at seven games.

OTHER GAMES

Freshman Darius Songaila scored 22 points as Wake Forest (10-4, 1-1) pulled away late from undermanned Virginia (9-5, 0-2) for a 69-53 victory in an ACC game at Winston-Salem, N.C. Virginia had to go with only six scholarship players and several walk-ons because of injuries and transfers. . . . Kenny Inge scored a career-high 28 points, the last five on a dunk and a three-point play in the final minute, to lead North Carolina State (10-3, 1-1) to a 75-69 ACC victory over Georgia Tech (10-4, 1-1) at Raleigh, N.C. . . . Tang Hamilton had a career-high 25 points as Mississippi State (11-3) was a 66-60 winner over South Carolina (5-7) in the SEC opener for both teams at Starkville, Miss. Rick Stansbury became the first Mississippi State coach to win in his first SEC game since Ron Greene in 1978--his only season. Jim Hatfield (1979), Bob Boyd (1982) and Richard Williams (1987) all lost their first SEC games. . . . Shawn Marion had 23 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots for Nevada Las Vegas (7-6) in its 79-67 victory over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (5-6), whose home-court winning streak ended at eight.

POSTPONED GAMES

A massive snowstorm in the Midwest forced the postponement of several games, including No. 16 Minnesota at No. 11 Purdue. That game was rescheduled for today. Other games postponed included Houston-DePaul, Villanova-Notre Dame, Wright State-Loyola of Chicago, Butler-Illinois Chicago and Northern Illinois-Ball State.