Tony Barbee does not feel as if Earnest Ross is coming off his best game of the season.

Sure, the Auburn coach can’t fault his sophomore guard for his career-high, 30-point performance in the Tigers’ 81-72 overtime loss to Georgia on
Saturday, but Barbee believes Ross played a more complete game in Auburn’s 79-64 win over South Carolina the week before.

Even though Ross scored 10 points and shot only 1-of-12 from the field.

“Offense will come and go, but you look at the other things,” Barbee said. “He had seven rebounds, five assists, no turnovers and played unbelievable defense for 40 minutes.

“Everybody wants to go out and score 30 points and say, ‘Yeah, I played a good game.’ That’s not always the case.”

As Auburn’s season has progressed, Ross, one of the most experienced of the Tigers’ returning players, is learning more and more what Barbee wants from him.

Yeah, the scoring is nice. But it’s got to be within the confines of the gameplan.

“I may go through a little phase where I’m just turning the ball over or missing a couple shots and I’m down on myself,” Ross said. “But that’s what Coach Barbee’s been working on with me. Every player’s going to go through moments where they just go through droughts. But you’ve just got to fight through the wall, break through the wall and pick yourself back up.

“Even if you’re not on, make plays for your teammates and stuff like that.”

Ross’ ability to create is undeniable. He can knock down 3-pointers, drive to the basket and get to the foul line, which, on an offensively challenged team such as Auburn, are three key ingredients.

His 13.2 points per game this season lead the Tigers — and his 10.4 point-per-game increase from last year is tops in the SEC — along with his 35 3-pointers and 6.9 rebounds per game.

He’s also Auburn’s top turnover man with 2.2 per game, most of them the product of forcing the issue when the Tigers start going cold offensively.
Barbee said Ross is getting better at taking care of the ball.

“Early on, he didn’t understand what I was looking for out of him offensively,” Barbee said. “He was trying to do things he could not do. As he started to understand better what I needed from him, you started to see his assist-to-turnover ratio go the other way.”

Coming into the season, Ross knew he would have to be one of the oldest sophomores in the country.

With four starters graduating — and the other, Frankie Sullivan, sidelined with an ACL tear — Ross realized he was going to have to shoulder a good piece of the burden for this year’s Tigers.

Couple that with the late-December departure of second-leading scorer Andre Malone and the decision to shut Sullivan down for the year before SEC play, and Ross became the top name in a dwindling pool of offensive weapons for Auburn.

Ross played 428 minutes last year. He passed that total in the SEC opener this season.

“I knew at some point in time I was going to be asked upon to take on a leadership role,” Ross said. “I just try to guide the team the best way I can, show them I’m a leader and I can do things to help this team out. Whether that’s defense, offense, rebound, get steals and get them to score. I’m just doing what I can to help my team win.”

And win that internal battle between trying to do too much and serving as a sparkplug for a young Auburn squad.

“I feel like I have to be able to score the ball, that’s some other guys’ on the team’s role also,” Ross said. “One of my responsibilities is try to score the ball, and that’s what I try to do.”

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Mississippi State (13-10, 5-4) at Auburn (8-15, 1-8)
Where: Auburn Arena
When: 6 p.m.
Radio/TV: WKKR (97.7 FM)/FSSO (Channel 33 in Lee County)
Projected starters, Mississippi State: F Renardo Sidney, 6-10, So. (13.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 0.6 apg); F Kodi Augustus, 6-8, Sr. (11.9 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 1.9 apg); G Jalen Steele, 6-3, Fr. (5.1 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0.8 apg); G Dee Bost, 6-2, Jr. (17.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 5.4 apg); G Shaun Smith, 6-6, Fr. (1.3 ppg, 0.8 rpg, 0.3 apg)
Projected starters, Auburn: F Allen Payne, 6-6, Fr. (6.1 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.0 spg); F Kenny Gabriel, 6-8, Jr. (9.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 1.0 bpg); F Adrian Forbes, 6-8, Jr. (3.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.6 bpg); G Josh Wallace, 5-10, So. (5.6 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 3.8 apg); G Earnest Ross, 6-5, So. (13.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.2 apg)