Click here to view Brevard's game notes for the Brevard vs. Auburn matchup or view Auburn's notes here.
BREVARD, N.C. - Brevard will play its highest-profile exhibition game in five years on Friday night as the Tornados travel to face the Auburn Tigers at Auburn Arena.
The Tornados are no stranger to squaring off with Bruce Pearl-coached teams, as Brevard faced Pearl's Tennessee squad in Knoxville in 2010. That Brevard team was coming off a South Atlantic Conference Tournament championship and its first NCAA Tournament appearance, while the Volunteers fell one point shy of advancing to their first-ever Final Four.
In the five years since that meeting, Pearl has moved on from Tennessee to take over a struggling Auburn program. In his first season, the Tigers limped to a 4-14 mark in Southeastern Conference play before catching fire in Nashville at the SEC Tournament. The 13th seed among 14 SEC teams, Auburn reeled off three straight victories before falling in the semifinal round to unbeaten Kentucky.
Those on the Plains are hopeful that last year's improbable run in Nashville is a precursor of the success to come in the Pearl Era, success that he will look to replicate from each of his previous coaching stops. In 20 seasons as a head coach, Pearl's teams have advanced to 17 NCAA Tournaments, including winning the 1995 Division II national championship at Southern Indiana.
Friday's starting lineup for the Tigers includes just two players on the roster a season ago. One of them is Cinmeon Bowers, a 6-7 forward 30 pounds slimmer than the player who was one of the SEC's top performers with 14 double-doubles last season. He is the league's top returning rebounder at 9.6 boards per game and is Auburn's leading returning scorer after averaging 12.1 points per contest.
Two transfers are expected to make large contributions in starting roles Friday night. Kareem Canty sat out his sophomore season due to NCAA transfer rules after originally matriculating at Marshall, but was a Conference USA All-Freshman Team performer with 16.3 points and 5.5 assists per game in his only season with the Thundering Herd.
Fifth-year senior forward Tyler Harris played the last two seasons at Providence and is immediately eligible this season because he is a graduate student. His best season came as a sophomore, when he averaged 11.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.0 steals for the Big East champion Friars. He also spent a season playing for Mark Gottfried's N.C. State team and has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of his collegiate seasons.
Brevard head coach Lee Burgess will use Friday's exhibition as an important step in determining how to replace the contributions of Darius Moose, the Tornados' first team all-conference performer that departed as Brevard's NCAA-era career scoring leader. Miles Leathers, a senior forward who was named to the preseason all-SAC second team on Tuesday, is expected to increase his contribution this season.
The Charlotte native averaged 11.1 points per game and team-highs of 6.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 2.0 steals per contest last season and is the Tornados' top returner. Leathers will look to pick up where he left off from last season after reaching double figures in eight of Brevard's last 10 games and notching at least 20 points in three of those contests. Joining him in Friday's starting lineup will be sophomore guard Stevie Williams and senior center Alex Moe.
Two fresh faces will make their first appearances in a Brevard uniform against the Tigers. Diminutive guard Demarcus Threatt was a junior college teammate of Jaylon Debardlabon before spending a year at Division I Fairfield. While at Snead State Community College, he was named second team all-region after topping 20 points 14 times as a sophomore. Forward Omar El Diraoui had a pair of double-doubles for Chicago's Malcolm X College last season, averaging 7.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.
Two other players figuring heavily into Burgess's plans are sophomore guard Evan Dunham and freshman center Will Brown. Dunham saw action in 19 games last year, averaging 1.7 points per game and accumulating six assists in nearly seven minutes per contest. Brown's 6-9 frame will be key to establishing a presence in the paint against the likes of Bowers and will provide key minutes in relief of Moe.
Friday's trip marks the first of two exhibition contests for the Tornados. Brevard takes on UNC Asheville, which the Tornados defeated 73-69 in a 2009 exhibition, at Kimmel Arena next Saturday.
