SAN ANTONIO — Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl said Friday that he’s watched enough tape on Florida “to make me sick.”
While he said it in jest, it’s hard to blame him. The Gators, who the Tigers play Saturday (5:09 p.m. CT, CBS) in the Final Four, are a matchup nightmare for most teams. And the run Walter Clayton Jr. has been on over the past month should be enough to make any opponent queasy.
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When Florida beat Auburn in early February, the Gator guard was crucial. He led Florida with 19 points, and he did it while dishing 9 assists and grabbing 6 rebounds.
That feels like chump change compared to what he did through March. Since Florida’s win over Texas A&M on March 1, Clayton is averaging 20.6 points per game. That’s well up from his season average, and he’s done it while shooting 42.9% from 3-point range.
“He’s such a unique player, because most of the time, you think it’s a bad shot, and it’s a good shot with him, because he can make it if he can just see the rim,” Auburn associate head coach Steven Pearl said Friday. “Our guys really got to be locked in, got to stay in a stance for 40 minutes, can’t get hit on screens, got to communicate our actions, and we’ve just got to make his life a little more difficult.”
Clayton’s proved that’s easier said than done. What he’s done in Florida’s 10 games since the start of March is impressive. But since the postseason began, he’s been even better. Going back to the SEC Tournament, Clayton is averaging 21.6 points in his past seven games. He’s also shooting better from distance (47.4%) than from the field. (46.7%)
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For Auburn to contain him, it knows it’ll have to defend much better in the rematch.
“He just got the ultimate green light and was shooting from everywhere,” Auburn guard Denver Jones said of Clayton’s performance in February. “You didn’t know when he was going to shoot it. I just feel like a lot of the actions, I’m trying to make him put it on the floor instead of just giving him open shots. When he’s feeling comfortable, we need to make him feel uncomfortable.”
That’ll largely be Jones’ task, but as Steven Pearl pointed out, it’ll go deeper than him. Jones has the best DBPR (defensive bayesian performance rating) of any Auburn guard this season, but it’s likely Miles Kelly and Tahaad Pettiford will have to try their luck in halting Clayton.
They rank sixth and ninth perspective on the team in that category.
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“Clayton has been the best guard on the floor every single night,” Bruce Pearl said of Florida. “Clayton can’t be the best guard on the floor tomorrow.”
Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Final Four: Why one matchup stands out for Auburn basketball vs. Florida
