Inside the art of Bruce Pearl's out-of-bounds plays with Auburn basketball

AUBURN — Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl is scrupulous.

In an October practice ahead of his team's season opener against Baylor, Pearl walked the Tigers through one of his signature baseline-out-of-bounds plays. He directed the inbounder's eyes, described where he wanted the ball to go and then shifted his attention to explaining to the other players on the floor how to run the action.

Pearl spoke fast and loud, moved quickly and refused to accept lackadaisical effort on the part of the starters he's designing the play for, or the scout team they were practicing against. He wanted the rotational players to get a simulated look at the defenses they'd soon be facing.

The play is designed to end with a layup. Fans in Neville Arena have probably already seen it a handful of times through the early part of the 2023-24 campaign, but they just didn't know it.

"That'll get us a bucket once every two or three games," Pearl said after installing the play.

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A notable chunk of practice time spent on one measly out-of-bounds play that'll only be used sparingly? How's that efficient?

Because it adds up, and the game is about generating buckets in any way possible. The Tigers have run 58 baseline-out-of-bounds plays (BLOBs) and 37 sideline-out-of-bounds plays (SLOBs) so far this season, per Synergy, an advanced analytics service. Those reps have resulted in a combined 124 points scored.

Auburn has averaged 1.276 points per possession on BLOBs and 1.351 points per possession on SLOBs so far this season. Both of those rank in the 99th percentile among Division I basketball teams.

"We devote so much time to it," senior forward Chris Moore said of repping the out-of-bounds plays. "(Pearl is) always on us about the small things in the play, the things you think that wouldn't matter. Like false movements or misdirection opportunities that you can make and help your team create an open shot.

"He's always on us about those. Having him depicting those really helps us out a lot."

Pearl often deploys a 1-4 flat offense when his team has an opportunity to inbound the ball from under the opponent's basket, which is typically triggered by a non-shooting foul. The 1-4 scheme is designed to flatten the defense and create space for movement.

The inspiration behind Pearl using the 1-4 offense comes from Tom Davis, whom Pearl was an assistant under at Stanford (1982-86) and Iowa (1986-92) before he got his first head coaching gig at Southern Indiana in 1992. Davis, who enjoyed a coaching career that spanned five decades and finished with a winning percentage of 62.6%, used the system.

"Dr. Tom Davis was my mentor, and Dr. Tom Davis ran 1-4 flat in the under-OB," Pearl said Monday. "I am absolutely still running the foundation of that. So much of what we do is from Dr. Tom Davis, who is arguably one of the greatest coaches in the history of college basketball who is not in the hall of fame."

Pearl has long translated basketball verbiage into football terminology. He knows what sport is king on the Plains, and that's despite his efforts to make Auburn a basketball town. By lining up in the 1-4 flat every time a BLOB opportunity presents itself, it's difficult for foes to diagnose what's going on. Pearl instructs his players to do some "pre-snap" movement so that opponents have trouble reading what the Tigers are trying to do.

"Our personnel are usually in the same spots," Pearl said. "We move them around a little bit ... and everything's got a counter. If we do this, and you take that away, well, then we'll do that.

"Just trying to run stuff that's simple but hard to guard."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: The process behind Bruce Pearl's use of BLOBs at Auburn basketball