AUBURN, Ala.–Coach bruce pearl and his staff put their 2022-23 Auburn basketball team through their final practice Friday night before the Tigers board a plane Saturday for a long flight to Israel, where they are scheduled to play three exhibition games.
As the Tigers have done in other road-prep practices, they worked on executing their offense quickly on Friday to avoid 24-second clock violations. The Tigers also worked against the scouting team, which ran the offensive and defensive teams Auburn expects to see in Israel starting Tuesday’s game in Jerusalem against the Israel Under-20 National Team. Tipoff is scheduled for noon CDT with television coverage on the SEC Network, which is scheduled to air all three games with noon kickoffs.
“All international teams can shoot,” said Pearl, who led the Tigers to the 2021-22 SEC championship. “They will be difficult to protect.
“Everyone is better from three than from two”, declared the coach. “In the first game against a team of guys our age, we’ll probably be a little bit bigger and more athletic. They will be very well trained. They will execute things that are difficult to protect. They can shoot the trash.”
The Tigers have been working on full-court pressure that they could try with the luxury of having what appears to be perhaps Pearl’s deepest roster since he’s been coaching at Auburn.
Pearl said he can play up to 13 players in a game in Israel, but added that it would most likely be 10-12 and noted that he may not see all the players for all three games.
“I don’t know much about the team they are putting together for us on the 7th (August 7th in Tel Aviv against an all-star team),” the coach said. “It’s a collection of stars from professional teams that are there.
“The last match will be the one for the Israeli National Team,” he said. “They will be nothing more than professionals, older guys who play in the NBA or play abroad and represent Israel in the Olympics.”
dylan cardwell, a 6-11 youth center, 255, said he is excited about the trip for the basketball competition and the sightseeing opportunities. The Tigers have a busy touring schedule with plans to see numerous historic religious sites.
Asked to compare this season’s team to last season, Cardwell said: “It has a lot of similarities. I think we’re an older team, obviously, and I feel like we’re a deeper team. I feel there is going to be more diversification in people’s roles. Last year we relied so much on Walker (Kessler) and Jabari (Smith) and those guys are gone. It’s like a power vacuum with an opportunity for other guys to show what they can do.”
Cardwell added: “BP (Pearl) also says our best attribute is our depth. If we take advantage of our depth, we will be fine.”
The center said it was impressed with the newcomers that include first-year guard tre donaldsonfirst year guard Westry Opportunityfreshman ahead Yohan Traore and junior Johni Broome, a Morehead State Transfer Center. “This is the best new boy group I’ve ever seen,” Cardwell said. “They want to be in the gym, they want to be trained, they fit right in with the system. These are all great guys going forward.”
Cardwell said he looks forward to seeing Israel, something like a junior teammate wendell green He said he’s looking forward to seeing. “I have never been so far (from home). I really want to see him for sure.”
When asked what he would like to see the team achieve, “We want to learn from each other more and more, the first time we play against an opponent. It should be fun to see where we are now. It’s not where we’re going to be in November or even April. We will find out what we have to work on.”
Pearl said he plans to extend playing time. “There will be a lot of 15 and 20 minutes (per game) on the stat sheet.”
When asked if the players were looking forward to making the trip, the coach said, “Everyone is very excited and we are extremely grateful to Auburn,” Pearl said, noting that the entire trip is paid for with donations from AU basketball. supporters