Auburn's TJ Lang hoping experience as freshman leads to starting role next season
Posted March 18, 2015
Who takes over for KT Harrell?
That's the most pressing question for Auburn's basketball team as the Tigers enter the offseason without their biggest scorer.
Harrell led the SEC with 18.5 points per contest while converting 43.4 percent of his 3-pointers, also a conference best. The Tigers also lose senior Antoine Mason, who ranked second on the team with 14.4 points per game in his lone season on the Plains.
Lang shoots over Texas A&M guard Jordan Green in SEC Tournament last week in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)TJ Lang is among the candidates to fill the scoring void, and the guard is hoping the experience he earned as a freshman will help him achieve a starting spot next season.
"I'm always going to have to compete," said Lang, who appeared in 27 games this season, averaging 2.4 points in 13.8 minutes per contest. "But I have a year under my belt and I'm not just going to let anyone take it."
Seventy percent of Lang's field goals came from beyond the arc, where he converted 33.3 percent of his attempts.
His load increased significantly in the final 12 games of the season as he filled in for Mason, who left the team twice to be with his family in New York while his father became ill and eventually passed away.
Lang made six starts and averaged 3.7 points in 20.3 minutes per game during the stretch. His 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting against Missouri March 3 was a season high.
One of the biggest goals for the 6-foot-7, 193-pounder this offseason will be accomplished in the weight room.
"I've got to get stronger, that's one of my main things," he said. "The stronger I can get, the more positions I can play and the more I can guard. Just getting stronger and working on ball handling will let me get to more spaces on the floor to create my jump shot better."
Lang is certainly used to scoring -- he averaged 19 points and eight rebounds as a senior at Class 6A McGill-Toolen in Mobile. Time will tell how he's utilized next season, but he believes the wild run to the SEC Tournament semifinals last week is a shape of things to come.
"We're going to be really talented," Lang said. "We're going to be young, but we're all going to have to buy into the system and build a relationship early and play together instead of waiting toward the end to piece it all together like we did this year.
"The sky's the limit. For the players returning we have a taste of what this is like -- a taste of making it this far. We're just going to come back in and start working as soon as possible."
