Leading up to Auburn’s season opener against Vermont, head coach Bruce Pearl made his concerns about the game known. He called the team “Yale-like,” looking to avoid the fate Auburn suffered in its lone NCAA Tournament game last season.
Wednesday night was nothing like the heartbreak versus Yale. Auburn dominated Vermont from early on, winning 94-43 and starting the season 1-0.
The game was never close and Auburn never took its foot off the gas. Vermont is far from the best team Auburn will play this season, but as a team that made the NCAA Tournament last season, it’s certainly no pushover either.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s game:
Auburn dictated the pace
Throughout the week leading up to Wednesday‘s game, Pearl talked about how little Vermont turns the ball over and how there would be fewer possessions than in Auburn’s win over Florida Atlantic.
In Vermont’s season opener, it turned the ball over five times, but more than doubled that in the first half against Auburn. Vermont had 12 first-half turnovers, leading to 18 Auburn points, helping the Tigers get out to a 46-21 lead.
Auburn’s athlete advantage was clear coming into the game, but it took full advantage of that, not allowing Vermont to make it a half-court game. Auburn guarded the ball well, not letting Vermont create open looks off of dribble penetration, something it found success doing against UAB.
The 3-point shooting is there
It’s only one game, but the acquisition of 3-point shooters like JP Pegues and Miles Kelly is already paying off for Auburn.
The duo made mine 3-pointers against Vermont, add in contributions from Johni Broome, Chad Baker Mazara, Denver Jones and Chaney Johnson and Auburn made 16 3-pointers as a team.
Kelly was especially impressive, scoring 21 points and making seven 3-pointers on nine attempts. He made five in a row at point in the game and is living up to the billing so far as potentially Auburn’s best shooter.
As a team, Auburn shot 46% from 3-point range. That won‘t hold in every game, but it‘s a promising indication of what this team can produce when at its best. It wasn’t necessarily all open shots either.
Vermont’s 3-point defense is good, made evident by holding UAB to 0-for-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Having natural shooters opens up the offense in many ways, and even against better teams Auburn will be hard to guard.
The defense is active
Arguably the biggest surprise of the game was how many turnovers Auburn forced. Vermont ranked ninth in the country last year in fewest turnovers per game (9.1), but finished with 16 against Auburn, matching its season high from the 2023-2024 campaign.
In the first half alone, Auburn scored 18 points off 12 turnovers. Heavy ball pressure, some full court pressure and active hands in passing lanes gave Vermont issues all game.
Auburn‘s clear advantage in athleticism helped it force a barrage of turnovers and that won’t be something it can rely on every game. However, consistently turning over a team as disciplined as Vermont is a promising sign.
To make things simple, holding any team to 43 points is never a bad thing to start the season.
Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com
