Auburn Basketball: Tigers' Hard Play Lacks Consistency

Auburn's one consistency this season is inconsistency, and it has shown bright in the Tigers' first three SEC games.

After an embarrassing 65-35 loss at Vanderbilt, which featured the lowest amount of points Auburn has scored since the 1950s, head coach Tony Barbee's squad turned around and battled No. 2 Kentucky for 35 minutes.

If Kentucky would have beaten Auburn (11-6, 1-2 SEC) by 40 points, the Tigers would have been outscored by a combined 100 points in its last three games.

Instead, the Tigers almost shocked the college basketball world.

While the 68-53 final looks lopsided, Auburn played the Wildcats competitively and easily played its best game of the season. If anyone wasn't convinced, statistics proved it.

Auburn had a better shooting percentage (41.2-40.4 percent) and more rebounds (35-29).

Center Rob Chubb, who played against Anthony Davis, one of the nation's top centers, scored a team-high 14 points and pulled in a team-high eight rebounds.

Despite the loss, a majority of the Auburn Family was still happy with the team's effort and play.

Then, a lot of that momentum was lost Saturday was Auburn hosted Ole Miss.

Positives? Auburn won 69-68 in double overtime. Auburn also shot better than Ole Miss in every category, despite only shooting 37.9 percent from the field and 64.3 percent of shots from the foul line.

Negatives? Ole Miss had 49 rebounds to Auburn's 39.

In fact, Chubb fouled out with eight points and zero rebounds.

The difference from the Kentucky game was like night and day. That inconsistency has become an unofficial theme to the season.

With inconsistency being so popular, guard Frankie Sullivan is the coolest kid in school.

While Sullivan still averages the most points per game on the team for the season, he only averages 8.7 points per SEC game, which ranks him second behind guard Chris Denson, who currently starts over Sullivan.

Sullivan scored only two points against Vanderbilt and five against Kentucky.

After going into the half without scoring against Ole Miss, it appeared his slump had continued.

However, in the second half, Sullivan caught fire. He finished the game with a team-high 19 points, shooting 66 percent from the field and 40 percent beyond the arc.

For Auburn to continue to win, Sullivan must be able to shoot effectively, even if it is off the bench.

Again, statistics prove the logic.

Since Sullivan's knee injury last season, the Tigers have gone 10-1 in games he's reached double-digit points. Auburn is 5-7 in games which he did not.

As Auburn travels to LSU tonight looking to get its SEC record back to .500, the Tigers are two blocked shots away from tying last year's mark of 100.

The game is set for 7 p.m. (EST) and will be aired on ESPNU.