Following Tay Waller’s best career performance, Jeff Lebo joked that there was no way the hot-cold sharpshooter would have played on his former coach’s team.

Lebo, a Dean Smith disciple, is certainly a bit more new school than his coach at North Carolina, but even he has had to re-evaluate when to yell and when to just enjoy the show.

“He can make some bad ones,” Lebo said. “That’s the way he is.”

Waller has made Lebo cringe with a number of his looks from beyond the perimeter, some of which come with multiple hands in his face and a majority of which come at funny angles and seemingly inopportune times.

But when they go straight through and give Auburn 3 points, Lebo has a tough time putting up a fight.

“When he gets going, I have to be a little lenient, because he’s got the ability to make ’em,” Lebo said. “I watched (former Tennessee guard) Chris Lofton do that. I saw him shoot some shots, and I’d go ‘I cant believe he just took that, let alone make it.’”

Since Lebo took Waller out of the starting lineup at Ole Miss earlier this month, Waller has made more than he’s missed and has paced the Tigers’ offense during their recent hot stretch. Auburn hosts those same Rebels tonight at 7 p.m. at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

Lebo said he benched Waller that night in Oxford to “jumpstart” the junior-college transfer. Waller responded by going 0-for-6 that night as the Tigers fell, 78-59 — the definite low point of Auburn’s season.

“He was terrible,” Lebo said. “I put him back in (the starting lineup) and he was better there. You outsmart yourself sometimes.”

Waller has averaged 18.2 points per game since, including a career-best 32-point effort against Mississippi State. He’s started the bulk of these games hot from the start, often making his first few shots from the field to spark an early Auburn run.

In Auburn’s last two wins, Waller made five and two 3-pointers in the games’ opening minutes, respectively, as the Tigers opened quick double-digit leads.

“I don’t know if his game is dictated, but certainly his confidence is when he makes them early,” Lebo said. “It seems to ignite our team and ignite him.”

Keeping Waller ignited all the way through is the ideal goal, of course, but making him an effective go-to guy in the game’s final minutes is still a work in progress.

With the Tigers trailing by 3 late Saturday at LSU, Lebo designed a set play for Waller. The Bengal Tigers were hip to it, though, smothering Waller and giving him little to no room to force up a shot — even for his standards.

Waller shot it anyway. The shot clanked and Waller was left looking for a bailout foul.

“There’s certain plays we run for him at the end of the game like that one and he’s kind of programmed to take it,” Lebo said. “There is a Plan B sometimes.”

At this point of the season, Auburn fans have been accustomed to wondering if the Tigers will take the fifth or sixth seed out of the West heading into the SEC Tournament. But this year appears to be different, as the Tigers and Rebels sit tied for third.

If Auburn loses, it would basically fall two games behind the Rebels because of the subsequent 0-2 head-to-head record it would inherit.

“We’ve played five games in a row where I think we’ve played pretty well,” Lebo said. “Even with the injuries and not having everyone at different times, this is one of the better teams since I’ve been here.”

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Auburn (17-10, 6-6 SEC) vs. Ole Miss (15-11, 6-6)
Where: Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum
When: 7 p.m
TV/Radio: None/WKKR 97.7 FM
This and that: Auburn leads the all-time series 70-47 and has taken four of the past seven. Ole Miss won earlier this season, 78-59, in Oxford. Auburn is 46-10 all-time at home … Auburn’s Tay Waller and Ole Miss’ David Huertas rank second and third respectively in the SEC in 3-point makes … A win today would be the Tigers’ 18th — a five-year high for coach Jeff Lebo. The Tigers are also one win shy of equaling the season records for home wins.
Projected starters Auburn: F Korvotney Barber (12.9 ppg, 9.3 rpg), G Rasheem Barrett (8.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg), G DeWayne Reed (13.2 ppg, 3.9 apg), G Tay Waller (12.6 ppg, 2.7 rpg), Quantez Robertson (5.9 ppg, 4.2 rpg)
Projected starters Ole Miss: F Malcolm White (6.8 ppg, 5.2 rpg), F Murphy Holloway (8.7 ppg, 6.5 rpg), G Terrico White (11.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg), G Zach Graham (7.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg), G David Huertas (18.9 ppg, 4.7 rpg)