Takeaways from Auburn’s Loss To Arizona: Three D’s

In their biggest matchup of the season so far, the Auburn Tigers lost to the No. 12 Arizona Wildcats on Friday, 80-69. The loss drops Steven Pearl’s squad to 2-1 on the season, and though the score may look like the Wildcats ran away with the game, the Tigers’ performance for most of the matchup was actually quite strong, inspiring confidence in the program’s future.

There is a lot we can take away from this matchup, but the three things that stand out to me the most can be summed up with three key D’s–let’s break it down.

Defense

It didn’t take long for the Tigers to prove that defense would be a hallmark aspect of this game, as the Wildcats took a full two minutes to score their first…