Arizona-Auburn scouting report: On Tigers' Year 2 under Pearl and referee mea culpas

No. 12 Arizona (2-1) at Auburn (2-0)

Neville Arena, Auburn, Ala. | 7 p.m. Friday | ESPN2 | 1290-AM

Probable starters

ARIZONA

7 G Derek Dixon (6-5 sophomore)

6 G Bryce James (6-5 sophomore)

3 G Caleb Holt (6-5 freshman)

8 F Ivan Kharchenkov (6-7 sophomore)

13 C Motiejus Krivas (7-2 senior)

Key reserves

2 G Cameron Holmes (6-6 freshman)

23 G JJ Mandaquit (6-1 sophomore)

35 F Maksim Brnovic (6-10 freshman)

12 F Ugnius Jarusevicius (6-11 senior)

AUBURN

0 G Tahaad Pettiford (6-1 junior)

1 G Kevin Overton (6-5 senior)

2 G Caleb Williams (6-5 freshman)

5 F Thomas Dowd (6-8 senior)

94 C Narcisse Ngoy (7-0 senior)

Key reserves

4 G Kolby King (6-1 senior)

3 G George Kimble III (6-2 senior)

24 F Adam Olsen (6-8 senior)

12 C Bukky Oboye (7-1 senior)

How they match up

The series: Arizona beat Auburn 97-68 last season at McKale Center in the first game of the two-year home-and-home series, but the Wildcats lost both previous games against the Tigers, in the first round of the 1986 NCAA Tournament in Long Beach, California, and in the first round of the 2018 Maui Invitational.

Game agreement: Friday's game concludes a two-year, home-and-home series in which Auburn appeared at McKale Center last season. No cash was exchanged.

Auburn overview: Taking over the Tigers suddenly six weeks before last season began, thanks to the retirement of his father, Bruce Pearl, Auburn coach Steven Pearl suffered a 30-point loss to Michigan and a 29-point loss at Arizona early in the nonconference season, then went 7-11 in SEC play to just miss the NCAA Tournament field. Along the way, the Tigers' defensive efficiency slipped from No. 9 in 2024-25 to 109th last season.

The Tigers were the increasingly rare high-major team to accept an NIT invitation and took full advantage of it, winning all five games they played and using momentum to help recruiting and retention. The result is a deeper Auburn team that has beaten two mid-major opponents at home and is expected to compete for the upper half of the SEC this season.

The Tigers have one returnee from their 2025 Final Four team, leading scorer Tahaad Pettiford, while backcourt mate Kevin Overton returned for a second year at Auburn after spending the 2024-25 season at Texas Tech. Overton shot 41.3% from the 3-point range last season and grabbed 41 steals, while he’s made 6 for 10 3s so far this season.

Other wing players include Utah State transfer Kolby King, who scored five points off the bench against Arizona in the first round of last season’s NCAA Tournament, freshman Caleb Williams and South Alabama transfer Adam Olson, who has hit 4 of 11 3-pointers so far this season.

The Tigers are deep and big inside, too, featuring 7-footers Narcisse Ngoy and Bukky Oboye. Ngoy is averaging 10.0 rebounds so far, pulling down 36.0% of his offensive rebounding opportunities, while Oboye is a noted shot-blocker who averaged 1.4 per game at Santa Clara last season to rank fourth in the WCC. He has eight blocks over Auburn’s first two games this season, swatting away 22.9% of opponents’ two-point shots when he’s on the floor, according to Kenpom.

The Tigers have held both of their first two opponents, Southeastern Louisiana and Appalachian State, to an average of just 56.0 points.

He said it: “Last year they were top 20 in the country in offense and struggled defensively. I think that they fixed any issue that they had there.

“They're the same as they've always been in terms of their scheme. Their ball screen coverage is similar. I would assume they're gonna show some zone, do different things. They just have great size and length. They're blocking a lot of shots. Their two five men are really good players. They're big and physical and athletic, and they put a lot of pressure on you at the rim. That's probably why they're a lot better defensively.

“I would say one (Ngoy) is like Oumar Ballo, the other one (Oboye) is Christian Koloko. (Ngoy) has great size and strength and physicality, and (Oboye) is a little bit slender but athletic and great shot blocker, great defender.

“(With Pettiford and Overton) you could tell they've been in the system. They're experienced. They're just really skilled, experienced college basketball players.” — UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Tigers

Key players

AUBURN

Tahaad Pettiford

A backup freshman point guard who played starter’s minutes on Auburn’s 2025 Final Four team, Pettiford took on a much bigger role as a sophomore last season, and his efficiency dipped. He averaged 2.2 turnovers per game and 3.8 assists per game, and his 3-point shooting dropped from 36.6% to 29.0%, but so far this season, Pettiford is shooting 36.4% from 3 and has dished seven assists without a turnover.

ARIZONA

Ivan Kharchenkov

Especially without RJ Godfrey still not expected to play Friday in his home region, the Wildcats will likely respond heavily again to their energetic German/Russian sophomore forward. Kharchenkov leads the Wildcats in scoring (24.7), rebounding (9.0) and assists (5.0), but he’ll have to do it all in a true away environment against a big and athletic frontcourt.

Sidelines

Shhh… they actually get along

When official Greg Nixon announced that Arizona had successfully challenged a call in its win over NAU on Tuesday, he noted over the McKale loudspeaker that “one of the worst out-of-bounds calls ever made is now being reversed.”

It was a rare public admission of a ref's mistake, but maybe not all that rare on the court in more private conversations. Expected to get 80-90% of all calls and noncalls right, officials can be open with coaches about the ones they miss.

While UA coach Tommy Lloyd joked that he can’t disclose his “official-client privilege,” he noted that he and Nixon have lightly conversed about a call in UA’s Nov. 2 game against UCLA.

“He and I may have even had a few laughs because — it's over now — but there was this travel that was kind of missed in the UCLA game,” Lloyd said. A player took “like six steps and it was right in front of Greg, so he and I have laughed about that.”

Lloyd went on to defend Nixon and others who have called the Wildcats’ games, noting that most of them so far this season have worked NCAA Tournament games. Nixon was selected as an alternate for last season’s Final Four, while Doug Sirmon (who worked the UA-Cal Poly game) worked the Final Four and four of the other six officials to officiate UA games so far this season were selected for NCAA Tournament games last season.

“These officials are great,” Lloyd said. “The one thing I'll tell Arizona fans is that consistently on a night in and night out basis, we usually get the best officials. We have no complaints when it comes to officiating or the level of officials we get. We get high, high level officials.”

NIT believers

It’s fashionable — and arguably necessary — for high-major teams to bow out of NIT invitations these days so as to jump quickly into the transfer portal and begin rebuilding a team that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament.

But Auburn coach Steven Pearl embraced the opportunity last season, and says it may have wound up helping him bring back Pettiford and Overton to help build his team this season.

The Tigers missed the NCAA Tournament after blowing a 10-point lead and losing to Tennessee 72-62 in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament last season. They were 17-16 at that point.

“I think playing in the NIT was a big reason why they came back, as weird as that may sound, because I think we all had a bad taste in our mouths after that Tennessee game,” Pearl told The College Sports Company. “Our season could have ended right there, and I think if our season did end there, we probably lose both of them.

"Playing in the NIT, I think, gave them more confidence of why they believed in the system when they first came here. I think they enjoyed playing basketball those last couple weeks, and it gave them something to build off.”

Pearl said the two players also trusted his staff to fill roster holes around them, acquiring more big men and other threats that could take pressure off them this season. He said the two players also enjoy Auburn and its fan support.

“They both said, ‘We love it here,’ ” Pearl said. “They feel indebted to this place because this place has poured so much into them, not just in resources, but our fans constantly showed up even when we were sub-.500 in the league. … this place feels like home to them, and I don't think that's something they were willing to give up just to get more money in the transfer portal.”

Breathing room

This season also began drastically different for Pearl, who had an entire offseason to work on his team after taking over with short notice last fall. He also took the Tigers on an exhibition trip to Greece.

Not that Pearl is complaining about last year: He was able to make the rare jump into a high-major head coaching job without having any head coaching experience.

“I was blessed to get that opportunity,” Pearl also told The College Sports Company. “I’m so fortunate and appreciative of the fact that John (Cohen, Auburn AD) and his staff trusted me enough to allow me to have the job, and also give me years to work towards that job.

“But it's different jumping in at the end of September when practice starts as opposed to ending the season when we got done at the NIT, and then really beginning to build out your roster and what you want your imprint to look like.”

Numbers game

20: Games Pettiford has scored 20 or more points as a collegiate player.

69: Straight Auburn nonconference homecourt victories, the nation’s longest active streak

87: Straight Auburn homecourt sellouts at 9,121-seat Neville Arena.

— Bruce Pascoe