Auburn put in its best offensive performance under Tony Barbee in its season opener against McNeese State on Friday night, shooting 53.2 percent from the field and scoring 80 points in regulation for the first time in the second-year coach’s tenure.

It’s up to Auburn’s players to tell coach Tony Barbee when they need to come out.

It was the Auburn basketball team’s final preseason chance at improvement.

Auburn heads into its second-and-final exhibition game of the season with some good news.

Tony Barbee’s learned about all he can about his team from watching Auburn players pound on each other over summer scrimmages, through a couple weeks of fall practice and Saturday’s intrasquad scrimmage.

Coach Tony Barbee’s second season at Auburn began with a pair of practices at Auburn Arena on Saturday. The Tigers worked out for 90 minutes each in the morning and in the afternoon.

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.

Auburn’s SEC road begins in Knoxville this year and ends at Auburn Arena.