Who: Auburn Tigers vs Colorado Buffaloes
When: 12:00am CDT Monday into Tuesday
Where: Boulder, CO
How to Watch: You can watch it on TV on ESPN2 or online at ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app.
How to Listen: The live audio can be found here.
Live stats: Here.
Preview:
For the second game in a row, the Auburn Tigers will take on a team who went dancing last season. The Colorado Buffaloes have gone to the NCAA tournament for three years running. All five of their starters from last season's team are back, as well. This will be a tough test of Bruce Pearl's basketball team.
For Auburn, we know Matthew Atewe is out for the foreseeable future, but Tahj Shamsid-Deen is also likely out for this game with a shoulder injury from fighting for a loose ball in Friday night's victory over Milwaukee. I have not seen what Antoine Mason's status regarding his ankle injury in the same game, so I'm assuming he will be ready to go. Mason returned to the game on Friday night - though he was obviously limited in mobility - so I don't believe his ankle is that bad.
If Mason is unable to go, then Auburn loses a big scoring threat. Mason was key to Auburn's offensive production on Friday night not only in his scoring during play, but also in his free throw shooting.
Cinmeon Bowers was the first person to record a double-double in his Auburn debut since 1998-99 according to the official site's game notes. Technically he has two in a row since he also had a double-double in the exhibition against West Alabama a week previously. It will be interesting to see if he can make it an official two in a row tonight, though. I think he will have to in order for Auburn to come away with the victory, as he's the only real rebounder we seem to have, right now. Trayvon Reed can not get here quick enough. If Bowers goes down, we're going to struggle.
There will be a game thread up for those of you interested in following along. I will likely have to sit this one out, since I have an 8am class to teach in the morning, but I'm tempted to stay up and watch. It's an amazing thing that I'm considering doing that for Auburn basketball, but here we are, and I love it.
War Eagle.