More cold shooting in Knoxville

Life without Kareem Canty is less than enchanting.

Auburn took the floor at Tennessee Tuesday night without its starting point guard, who was suspended indefinitely before the team's lopsided loss at Georgia last weekend. What unfolded inside Thomson-Boling Arena nearly was a carbon copy of what happened in Athens.

The Tigers were listless, sloppy and remarkably errant.

Tennessee won, 71-45.

"This is not good basketball," coach Bruce Pearl said. "We’re not representing Auburn well at all. It’s a major step back for the development of our program."

Auburn (9-14, 3-8) was down by nine points when it scored its first basket of the game, which took more than six minutes. The visitors trailed by 11 at the half and saw that deficit climb to 18 points early in the second period.

The problem? There were several.

The Tigers, it seems, have lost their ability to score. After shooting 33 percent at Georgia, Pearl's team dropped to 27 percent on Tuesday night. Some of those shots were contested, hasty or otherwise unattractive.

Still, many of those shots were open. Like the layups that Cinmeon Bowers and Jordon Granger missed during the first half. Or all eight of Tyler Harris' misses from inside the arc. Auburn's offensive system created chances, but the score doesn't change if the ball doesn't drop through the hoop.

And that's not happening very often for Auburn right now.

"Our game plan was to go inside," Pearl said. "We went inside to Tyler. Went inside to Cinmeon. Sometimes, you’ve got to be mentally tough — not just physically tough. We weren’t mentally tough tonight. It’s not physical; it’s mental in the sense that their confidence is challenged."

With Canty out Tuesday night, the Tigers relied on Bowers and freshman New Williams to handle chores at point guard. Bowers was slightly more selective with his shooting, but committed six turnovers. Three of those turnovers directly led to Tennessee buckets.

Williams logged 18 minutes and finished with three points. He wasn't credited with a single assist.

"In 18 minutes, you've got to do more," Pearl said.

Harris, who has been the Tigers' best inside shooter this season, didn't practice Tuesday due to a back injury suffered in Athens. He started Saturday night, but was 0-for-10 from the floor before being pulled during the second half.

"(His back) was really bothering him," Pearl said "He toughed it out. He just couldn't convert on the inside."

Not everyone was off their game Tuesday. Freshman Bryce Brown was plucky throughout the night and finished with a team-high 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting.

"Bryce played like he belonged out there on the floor," Pearl said. "Not everybody else did."

Pearl said he told the team afterward for players to focus solely on how they can improve on an individual basis. He senses that players are not paying attention to their roles and instead trying to be a hero during every trip down the floor, which is wholly counterproductive.

He hopes that will spark some changes ahead of the team's next game this weekend.

"You can see that we’re just not competitive right now," Pearl said. "We allowed our play … to make it worse. It’s hard when you’re getting your brains beat out to have good body language."

The Tigers resume play Saturday at home against Vanderbilt.