An already massively undersized Auburn basketball team has to finish the season without its starting center and best interior defender.
The loss of center Anfernee McLemore, who suffered a dislocated ankle, fractured tibia and torn ligaments late in the first half of Auburn's game at South Carolina on Saturday, forces the Tigers to have to call upon their few other bigs to fill his more than 19 minutes per game.
"It's a tough loss. Anfernee has had a wonderful season," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "The discipline with which he trained to be able to offensively step out onto the floor and shoot the ball from the perimeter. For his size, he's the best shot blocker in college basketball for his size at 6-7 and the way he protects the rim for us.
"Going into this with nine guys we were the 305th tallest team. So now, he is our second-tallest player that played bigger than just anybody his size. So obviously a team that was small just got smaller."
It'll be largely up to Horace Spencer and Chuma Okeke to play the 40 minutes per game at center, with the latter and Desean Murray rotating at power forward along with Malik Dunbar.
Spencer is averaging 4.3 points and 4.7 rebounds in 16.6 minutes per game this season and has had difficulty staying out of foul trouble. The 6-foot-8 junior has fouled out twice this season, including after just 13 minutes of play in Saturday's 84-75 loss, and had four fouls in eight other games.
Spencer said he's focused on staying out of foul trouble moving forward and needs to stop :being I guess as aggressive as I want to be, kind of dial it back a little bit and just play little bit smarter."
He admitted finding the equilibrium of not fouling but also playing well defensively has been difficult this season.
"I feel like when I want to get physical I'm too physical," Spencer said. "I don't know what I can do differently. I just got to dial it back I guess and play a little softer."
As one of just two juniors on the roster and having started the first six games at center, Spencer knows Pearl's system. Though he doesn't offer much offensive production, Spencer is Auburn's only other capable shot blocker and a tougher interior defender when he can stay out of foul trouble.
"I just got to pick up a little bigger role, pick up where Anfernee had dropped," Spencer said. "I feel like everybody else know we got to honestly keep doing what we've been doing. Keep trying to win, keep getting better and play with our heart."
Statistically, Okeke is most similar to McLemore with the exception of shot blocking. The 6-foot-8 freshman is averaging 7.6 points and 5.4 rebounds, both slightly higher than McLemore's 7.4 and 5.3, respectively, while averaging 20 minutes off the bench and is a capable outside shooter.
"Chuma and Horace will both play the center position," Pearl said. "Chuma will continue to rotate at power forward with Desean. Then we'll either move Malik Dunbar or Mustapha Heron down to some power forward when we get into foul trouble."
Murray, who is averaging 10.7 points and a team-high 7.0 rebounds despite his 6-foot-3 frame, should see an increase in to his 22.9 minutes average at power forward. He played 30 minutes on Saturday, just the second game he's done so this season, and that could be a regular occurrence down the stretch.
Auburn's only other interior option is the 6-foot-6 Dunbar, who would provide support for Murray. He's averaging 5.6 points and 2.2 rebounds in 14 minutes per game off the bench and been mostly on the wing.
No. 12 Auburn (23-4, 11-3 SEC) will play its first full game without McLemore against Alabama on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. CT, SEC Network).
Before Monday's practice, Pearl said he hasn't decided who will start between Okeke and Spencer, who said he wasn't concerned about starting or coming off the bench.
"He's brought great life off the bench," Pearl said. "I'll probably leave it up to Horace and see what he wants to do."
Pearl is confident in what Auburn's eight remaining scholarship players can do the rest of the way.
"There's no breaking point for us," Pearl said. "We have been a resilient, tenacious, gritty group of guys that are talented and hardworking and trusting and relying on one another. We have a terrific team. ...
"I have a very high level of confidence in all of the things that we're going to be asking all of the guys to do to make up for Anfernee's loss. I really am. I think they are positioned to be able to do more. We are going to clearly miss Anfernee, but I really do think the other guys are in position, that are able to pick up and for us to continue to find a way to win basketball games."
James Crepea is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @JamesCrepea.