INTERESTING: Auburn and Mizzou's PORTAL Relationship has been LOPSIDED

0:00The Auburn Tigers head to Missouri for some basketball and a lot of back and forth in the portal between these two teams. You are locked on, calling your crossover. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team, every day. Yes, welcome on into the special crossover edition of Lockdown Auburn and Lockdown, Mizzou. He's John Miller, host of Lockdown, Mizzou. I'm Zach Blackerby, host of Lockdown Auburn. Thank you guys so much for making Lockdown Auburn your first listen every single day. We'll talk basketball, but I want to start with portal stuff. John, because it's the season to be portalin. You guys got three Auburn Tigers. We have added Nate Johnson, the backup edge for Mizzou. And if you don't mind, I want to say like, I think you're really going to like the guys that you got what Horatio fields. Yep. Robert Woodyard, kids at the door of Faustin.

1:03I think all of those guys make a ton of sense to be SEC players. Well, that's fantastic news. It seemed to me that Robert Woodyard Jr. in particular, I think you'll agree with me here, but that was good of a plug and play replacement as you could have there as a off-ball linebacker for Josiah Trotter, who was an excellent player in the league. But boy, Woodyard Jr., in particular in the Missouri game, I thought was tremendous too. So yeah, I think that's about as good a replacement as Missouri could have found, don't you? Yeah, I think so. I think so. And a guy who's willing, a guy who has gotten better, a guy who's been patient. And then he just caught put in a situation where Auburn's linebacker room is really, really good. Auburn's got a lot of questions about the roster. Linebacker is not one of them. And Auburn had a true freshman, Elijah Melendez, kind of emerged down the stretch there. And I think Woodyard kind of felt him breathing behind him a little bit. And then obviously Xavier Atkins was one of the best linebackers in the SEC. Heck, all of college football this past season.

2:04So he wants to go be the guy. I don't know if Missouri's setting him up to be the guy at linebacker and not if he'll be one of the guys. But I think he will for sure. But he's one of the two starters along with Nick Rodriguez, who played a really good gator ball as probably one of the few bright spots for Missouri in that game. And it's interesting you're sort of talking about, well, he had some young players emerge. Just interesting in the portal, there is no hard salary cap or any type of salary cap. But there is something called reality. Eventually you do run out of other people's money whether it is in government or it is in athletic department. So I do think it's interesting that you do have to make choices like that. I think obviously Woodyard Jr. fits an obvious need for Missouri. Maybe Auburn felt like, hey, just cost wise. Maybe we need to use some of our resources at other positions. I just find those trade-offs really interesting. Yeah. Yeah, Horatio Fields. I mean, assuming he's OK from his injury, big-bodied receiver, nice catch radius on the outside,

3:08just solid possession receiver. And then Kinsley the Norfhaus, and I didn't expect him to play a ton this past season. And he was a solid part of the rotation slash to 2D, but a pretty good defensive backfield. Kevin, wow, Kevin Steele, what am I doing? What am I doing? EJ Durkin, goodness gracious. DJ Durkin plays a lot of guys on defense and he was kind of the byproduct of that. And that's why you do it. So you can find this young talent that you have. And then at today's age, you find the young talent and the young talent leaves you. He's more of like a free safety type in my wrong than a box safety or something. Yeah, I think you play some corner too. I mean, yeah, I think there's some versatility there, for sure. I think he has the skill set to do both. I think he could play nickel slash slot corner, if he asked him. So a lot of value there, a lot of value there. It sounds like a good guy. I've heard nothing but great things about him as a teammate and a locker room guy. So I think I think Mizzou got three really solid, you know, SEC caliber players.

4:10As far as you've all got in return, John, this doesn't seem like an even trade. I'm going to be honest with you. Well, indeed, good thing it's not an actual trade. That's not it's not how this works. This isn't an actual transaction here, but yeah, just getting Nate Johnson. You know, it's interesting. Johnson was a guy who we were discussing off air, I think, if you're Auburn, if he came directly from App State, you're more excited about him. But since he came from App State, made the stop over at Missouri, maybe you're less excited about him. You just see, oh, single digit tackles on the season, that type of thing. Well, Nate Johnson did play, he played a little bit. I'll just point out to everybody that that was a really strong edge room for Missouri last season. Damon Wilson is now heading off, maybe to Miami or something. Boy, he's become quite the mercenary. I'll say that he was a good player from Missouri last season. There was thought he was probably going from Georgia, right? Exactly. He's the former Georgia Bulldog and really had a nice breakout season of for Missouri, along with Zion Young,

5:13a couple of guys who are Zion Young, definitely exhausted his eligibility. He's going off to the NFL, Derek Smith, another former Georgia guy, also a part of that edge room. I think he could break out next season. The only thing he might make you worry is Langdon Kitchen, a guy a Northwest Missouri State transfer. Well, he came in and well outperformed, definitely moved ahead of Johnson on the depth chart. But again, that may just be a product of a good edge room. And I'll just say you were talking about trades. Well, Missouri got, for example, Jaden Jones from Florida State as an edge guy. He wasn't wildly more productive than Nate Johnson on paper or anything like that. I've confessed to have not done the all-22 breakdown of both guys. But I just think it's a real crapshoot at this level of player. What kind of production are you going to get if you're Missouri, if you're Auburn? This is the part of the portal I actually don't love. I think we'd be better maybe for all programs

6:13and even these players. They just stayed in the same spot and continued to develop in the system that they're already in versus just constantly chasing a bag and maybe chasing greener pastures that aren't necessarily there. Yeah. If you're Nate Johnson, you have to see this edge room that Auburn has and it's like, there's not a lot there. They're bringing back your Smith. Yeah, former five star guy who played some and when we saw him last year, who's electric, he was just behind guys who are going to get drafted in a few months. And so Jarrett Smith analysis comes back. He's coming back, which is wild. Then if you're staying, you get a graphic but it's super helpful from a content standpoint. So we appreciate that. But the aspect of Jarrett Smith coming in, it's like, okay, Nate Johnson, a senior. And everybody else in that room, as of right now, Jarrett Smith is a true sophomore. No, Phillips is a sophomore. JJ Falk is a Richard freshman

7:13and they're bringing in Chris Wells as a true freshman, which I don't know if he has, you know, that much of a path to playing time this year. Like they're not, there's no way they're done in that room. I just can't imagine that being in the case. If they are, if they are, and Nate Johnson is the number two edge for an SEC team, is that okay when the number one edge, there's questions. Like he hasn't been a number one edge yet. Yeah, I think that's the thing. That's the thing. You have to really project forward and you have to trust your evaluation a lot. You have to trust your physical evaluation almost more than your film evaluation because at least last season there wasn't much film there. I just, I don't know what you're hanging your hat on. You almost have to go back to the app state thing. You have to look at him physically and think, well, what can our, what can our strength and conditioning people do with him? What can our defensive line, well, that's the thing. I mean, almost anybody in this league who is going to, who's going to draw interest from not just one SEC team, but then another year,

8:13and especially, hey, that's a heck of an Auburn and Missouri defensive line here the last few seasons. In my opinion, certainly Auburn was an excellent defense, especially that front last season, Missouri, and Ahmad Hardy saw it. So yeah, I think it's, I think it's an interesting move and he's an interesting guy. Obviously he's batting on himself. He's not going down a level by any stretch of the imagination. Yeah. Yeah. I did make my, my did make my Auburn is Missouri's triple a franchise joke. So that was a joke Auburn people. It was a joke. I'm sorry. I mean, we'd be doing the same thing. We'd be doing the same thing. So I get it. I totally get it. All right, Auburn heads to Mizzou to take on Tiger versus Tiger in some Wednesday night basketball action. Let's preview that in just a moment right here on this cross of edition of locked on Auburn and locked on Mizzou. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Wayfair. Wayfair is the best place to buy. I mean, they've got all kinds of stuff. They've got all kinds of stuff. John Miller.

9:14Absolutely. Yes, they're regularly comes on. He bought his sink from Wayfair. Wow. I didn't know you get plumbing there too. They want to do everything. That's incredible. And obviously they've got the bedding and they've got, you know, new decor to freshen things up for spring and all that. They've got everything over at Wayfair and you're going to spend last money. Let's don't overthink this people. Absolutely. We're organized, we're fresh and back on track this new year for way less. Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That is Wayfair.com Wayfair, every style, every home. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Game Time. Game Time is the best place to buy tickets. It's not even close. John Miller, can you imagine buying tickets anywhere other than with our friends at Game Time? I think that would be quite foolish and listing them as well. Heck, I've used Game Time before. It's very easy to just transfer the tickets to the people you're going with too. I bought them, transferred it to them, easy peasy. Yep, I love it. I absolutely love it. Deal from your seats. I've got zone deals. I mean, it's the best way to buy tickets.

10:16No question about it. I guess we're going to buy tickets with Game Time, download the Game Time app, green account, use code locked on college for 20 bucks off your first purchase. Terms apply again, that is code locked on college for 20 bucks off, download the Game Time app today. Cross-off edition of Locked on Mizzou and Locked on Auburn. John Miller's at Lockerby here with you. It's so funny, the impact one game can have because Auburn's starting O and two in conference play, two heartbreaking losses. John, two just devastating losses. Yep. And then they host a really good Arkansas team. They had the number 15 by their name, like nationally ranked, nationally respected. And then what came into Neville and Auburn just ran him out of the gym, like it was never even really competitive. And so now all of a sudden, we're back, right? I mean, that's just the game of basketball, the ebbs and flows. You guys start out as you see play really hot and then you'll drop one, it was all missed, right? Over the weekend.

11:17Yeah, just this past, yeah, weekend. Yeah, so curious to see kind of what the feeling is for both of these teams going into this one and what is going to be an important game when it comes to standings. Also because I don't think anyone in the SEC really knows who's actually good and who's actually bad yet. Yeah, especially outside of the top two or three teams, it seems like it's just a big jumble in the middle. And really, yeah, after that, really, Missouri played that bragging rights game against Illinois lost by, I believe, 41 plus 43 points, something like that off the top of my head. And I was just about ready to write the obituary on the entire season. Now the good news is Missouri did get a couple of key players back, most notably, Jaden Stone, who definitely makes a huge difference for the Tigers. He's another score and ball handler on the perimeter of the Tigers desperately need. The problem is for Missouri, obviously, hey, great start. You beat Kentucky on the road for the first time in your history. You beat the reigning national champions in Florida at home.

12:20Yeah, I'm just worried about Missouri being able to sustain offense enough to be competitive enough to at least make a run at the bubble in March, that type of thing. If they're not hitting threes, I just wonder where else they consistently get offense because I just don't see the path to this being really even an above average or even average SEC team defensively. So they've got a score and the fact that they got off to a hot start against Ole Miss 22 to 12 just couldn't sustain the offense. That really worries me for the long term. But how are you feeling about your Tigers and Steven Pearls first year so far? I still don't really know. I mean, it does seem like there has been a shift. They brought in Keeshawn Hall who led the big 12 and points per game last year from UCF. He's been phenomenal. He's been absolutely incredible this season. And going into it, the assumption was going to be, all right, we're going to have this awesome 1A and 1B with Keeshawn Hall and Tahad Pettiford.

13:21And these two guys are going to be like one of the better scoring tandems in college basketball. And it hasn't really played out that way. It seemed like they were kind of forcing it to be Keeshawn and Tahad when Keeshawn has been incredibly electric and Tahad has been really hit or miss week by week. And it does seem like there's been a pivot made intentionally by the team saying, okay, no, this isn't Keeshawn and Tahad's team. This is Keeshawn Hall's team. And he's had back to back 30 point games. First time forever, Auburn's had a guy do that. And so I do think you've seen a little bit more of an identity on offense. And because of that, you've seen other guys not the hot Pettiford step up with a Kevin Overton who they brought over from Texas Tech. Keeshawn Murphy, who they brought over from Mississippi State. He's kind of stepped up as well as the big one. I love it. Yeah, double Keeshawn over the same way. That's the best. And then Philip Yovic is a guy they brought over from Europe. His game is very European.

14:23But he's gotten better. He had really clunky, heavy feet early on defensively and it seems like he's becoming a much better, more rounded basketball player. So there is still early to figure out exactly what's going on. I mean, you were talking about Missouri scoring. If I'm playing against Auburn, I'm attacking the basket to every possession. I'm going to pick a roll. There's no reproduction. It's not to get movement. Backdoor cuts. I'm doing all of that around the basket because we have not shown any interest in stopping them. Well, the numbers say that Auburn is, as usual, at least since the Bruce Pearl era, that there once again, one of the elite offensive teams in the entire country, but the defense that they played under Bruce, that just isn't there. At least that's what I'm seeing statistically there. So that's accurate. I mean, really, you could be in for a shoot out here. This game could get into the 90s, I think, pretty easily. I think 80s is almost, is a pretty safe bet.

15:24I think that these teams could get into the 80s here. So I don't think we have an over-under here over at Fandall at the moment, but I'm just telling you, that's the kind of basketball game I think we're going to see here. And it'll probably just come down to who hits their threes. I hate to be too simplistic, but that may well be what it comes down to in this basketball game, who hits their free throws. All that kind of stuff. And while Missouri's been a pretty terrible free throw shooting team so far, and Auburn's been just okay. Yeah, just okay. And a lot of this coming from one or two guys kind of struggling from that, from the charity striped there. What does make Auburn so effective offensively this year? If Pettiford's been kind of up and down, is it really just Kishon Hall? Just Kishon Hall's been kind of the constant. And then whoever's the number two guy that night is kind of rotated. I mean, Oberten's popped, the hottest pop, Murphy is popped. Yovick has popped. Yeah, they've just had different guys kind of have these moments. And I think that's going to be a big part of what

16:24gives this team a chance to some of these games. But yeah, Kishon Hall has been exceptional. I've never, what he did this past week in Against Arkansas was one of the better scoring performances I've seen in a long time. I mean, he was efficient, quietly put up 30, like he only missed like three shots. I mean, he was unbelievable. So can he keep that going? Can he keep that momentum going? I think that'll be, that'll be the biggest question. As far as you know, on the Missouri side of it, if you're watching for certain guys, Kishon Hall is obvious. Kishon Murphy defensively, he's going to be the guy around the bass. I'm curious to see what that looks like. And then Philip Yovick, he's a European guy. Can't miss him. He'll be, he's kind of battled injury, played a limit. There were questions if he was even going to play this past Saturday, probably like 12 or 13 minutes was really effective in that time. And then once Auburn got up, they, they arrested him, which makes sense, right, Cole? How ready to go is he? I think he's going to be a big part of what they do on Saturday, assuming he can go.

17:25One thing I noticed about Kishon Murphy, he's a guy I'm familiar with was a three-year player before this at Mississippi State is, well, at least so far this season, Auburn has expanded his range out to the three-point line. He's actually nine of 23 from three. I gotta say if I'm, that's wild. I gotta say if I'm Dennis Gates, I'm almost not, I'm not trusting that. I'm going, let's see if he can hit it. At least early. Well, he should have won it more because he made the buzzer-beater shotting and saying, and then those controversial, if you saw that. I did. I forgot that that was him. It was called good on the floor. So maybe I'm, maybe I'm crazy. Maybe it is real. I just, I'm starting to wonder if maybe that's a bit of full-scaled, but he could, he could totally prove me wrong there. So maybe that's actually a terrible strategy. Yeah, I mean, I hate it when Big Man shoot, threes, and it's always like, no, no. Oh, okay, it went in. All right. I feel like it's been a lot of that this year with him. Well, yeah, the thing is, it's just the previous year, he was four of 27 in 2025. So you just wonder, I don't know, I haven't seen any- Maybe something to wander in the canning.

18:26Yeah. Maybe it does. Something those pearls can get him going down there. I don't know what it is. But, you know, to your point, you were saying a little bit of a rotating group that second and third option is for Auburn. I think that's the case for Missouri, because right, I think Mark Mitchell's one of the best players in the league. I think, I think Jaden Stone, at the very least, is one of the best perimeter scores in the league. Outside of that, though, just not enough consistency. Anthony Robinson hasn't been as consistent as you would like as Missouri's lead guard. He's a junior. You would hope this would be just a better season for him so far. Let's see how he does an SEC play. And Jacob Cruz, one of the best three point shooters in the league. Again, just need a more consistent option other than the three point shot for him, which is kind of emblematic of, to me, the whole Missouri roster right now. Who wins? Give me a score prediction. You know what, I just- I think it'll probably be Auburn in a close one.

19:27I think if it were in Auburn, I would definitely lean toward the Auburn Tigers for sure. But in Columbia, Missouri, I think the Tigers have a chance. I just think that I think that Auburn will figure out that the more you move the basketball, the more you'll get open shots against Missouri. I think maybe the that scouting report may be out a little bit. That's the part that worries me as much as I generally will pick Missouri and a toss up type game on paper. I'm just to be brutally honest with everybody. I'm feeling Auburn right now. I'm thinking like 86 80 Auburn would be my pick. I think it's going to be in the game the 80s and probably a fairly entertaining game as long as the officials get out of the way. Yeah, not holding my breath on that one. Yeah, exactly. That's the problem with college basketball right now, Gianni. Especially when there's like 15 seconds left who I hold on. Does everybody know I'm here? Does everybody see me? Right. Does everybody see me? I'm calling the game. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. John, for all the Auburn folks watching, if they want to follow the Auburn Tigers

20:29that have now playing for the Missouri Tigers, what's the best way to check out everything you've got? I'm sure they can't wait. And yeah, absolutely. Yeah, YouTube locked on Mizzou and wherever you listen to the podcast as well. Realistically, you probably want me in short form, right? So check me out on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, all that good stuff at locked on Mizzou. Yeah, however you consume locked on Mizzou, you can find locked on Auburn there as well. For John Miller of Locked on Mizzou, I'm Zach Black, we have locked on Auburn. This has been a crossover edition of Locked on Mizzou and locked on Auburn presented by the Locked on podcast network.