It was getting tough for Frankie Sullivan to sit around and watch.

It was even tough for the Auburn junior guard — laid up for almost five months with a torn ACL — to sit still.

“He wouldn’t sit down,” roommate Kenny Gabriel said of Sullivan during his rehab. “He would just keep moving. Walking around on crutches, laying on the couch, reaching his crutch out.

“I’m like, ‘If you sit down, I’ll put everything here that you need.’”

Now, Sullivan can move around fine, or at least better than he could when he first tore his ACL in July.

His minutes have increased dramatically in the four games since he’s been back, from 10 in the first to 20 to 28 to 39.

So have his points, going from 4 to 5 to 14 to 17.

“There’s no secret what he brings to this team, even though he’s still playing at probably 65, 70 percent,” Tigers coach Tony Barbee said. “Frankie’s big.”

Sullivan’s rounding into shape at the right time, especially with Andre Malone leaving the team.

Malone was the Tigers’ second-leading scorer, averaging 11.7 points in 25.9 minutes per game.

He had averaged 2.5 points in 13.5 minutes in the two games before he left, as Sullivan’s role increased.

Barbee said Malone left, in part, because of concerns about diminished playing time as Sullivan got healthier.

“That was a bad deal for us, because we really needed Andre,” Sullivan said. “Best of luck to him and his family, with what he’s doing in the future.”

Sullivan and the rest of the Tigers (5-7) take on Grambling (2-9) today at 4 p.m. at the Auburn Arena, coming off an eventful overtime win against Georgia Southern.

Auburn went up 29 points on the Eagles before losing the lead and recovering to win 88-84, its second win in a row.

Grambling’s two wins this season have come against Central Arkansas and Southeast Missouri.

Justin Patton, a 6-foot-7 junior forward, leads Grambling with 13.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game.

“They are long and athletic and very quick so it is going to be a challenge for us with their style of play,” Barbee said. “We are going to have to really defend, defend the ball screens and keep them from getting offensive rebounds.”

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