Year 1 of Tony Barbee’s Auburn reclamation project was about effort: taking a team short on talent and experience, teaching it to play tenaciously on the defensive end and having it all yield – hopefully – in some unexpected wins.

Year 2’s about to begin, with the nucleus of last year’s 11-20 team – that overachieved and won four SEC games – intact, to go along with some choice additions.

This year’s about making some noise.

“It’s the second phase of rebuilding,” Barbee said. “The increase in the talent level that we have is significant.”

Last year’s Tigers hung their hats on defense because they had to, because – barring a lights-out shooting performance once in a blue moon – the Tigers struggled to put up more than 65 points in a game.

Barbee’s hoping the defensive intensity carries over to this season, with an infusion of offensive talent to complement it.

Even with the loss of leading scorer Earnest Ross – who left the team in the spring and transferred to Missouri – Barbee has high hopes for his Auburn offense.

“Our mentality is, if you’re going to play one of my teams, you better expect a fight for 40 minutes, and we’re going to continue with that tough defense being our identity,” Barbee said. “We have a team that can score significantly better than last season. At the end of the day, it’s the team that put up the most points that is going to win. What made it hard last year was that we were offensively challenged.

“This year we’re not there entirely, but we have a team that can finish strong.”

Auburn returns more than 70 percent of its scoring from last year, including senior forward Kenny Gabriel (10.3 points per game), junior center Rob Chubb (7.6) and sophomore sixth man Chris Denson (5.9), who finished his freshman year on a high note with a career-high 21 points in the Tigers’ SEC Tournament loss.

The Tigers also add a healthy Frankie Sullivan – who missed all but six games last season with an ACL injury – and transfer point guard Varez Ward (Texas) and swingman Noel Johnson (Clemson).

“We have a lot of guys who can shoot and put it on the ground, so we’re consistently trying to get in the paint, get fouled, make free throws,” Gabriel said. “On defense, we’re just trying to create turnovers so we can get back on offense.

“We’re going to have a couple set plays or whatever, but most of the time we’ll just be in motion, whether it’s shooting it or dribble-drive and passing it and get open shots.”

Auburn also adds the freshman trio of 6-foot-3 shooting guard Cedrick McAfee, 6-8 forward Bernard Morena and his high school teammate, 6-10 post player Willy Kouassi.

Barbee said all three players come with a winning pedigree and even Morena – the most lightly recruited of the group – has surprised the coach with his shooting ability.

Kouassi can be a great post defender in the mold of a Marcus Camby at Massachusetts, Barbee said, and Sullivan has already seen Kouassi giving teammates the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag after emphatic rejections in summer pick-up games.

As for McAfee, well, he’s just “one of the most prepared freshmen” Barbee has ever coached.

“He is going to be a guy who can score the ball very, very easily,” Barbee said. “He is so athletic and can finish above the rim, but he also stretches the defense out from 23 or 24 feet. He has that kind of range. We are expecting a lot from Cedrick.”

Auburn fans get their first chance to glimpse the Year 2 Tigers at Tiger Hoops Madness at the Auburn Arena on Friday night.

Barbee’s already seen enough of his team to know it’s a different year, indeed.

“It’s a whole big difference,” Gabriel said. “Coach has told us, he was like, last year was a nightmare trying to watch us play pick-up. Now he loves it, because we’re so competitive with each other.

“We all just want to go for the win.”