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.

The second-year Tigers coach wants to see how they’ll do against someone other than their teammates.

“It will be good to see them against somebody else because they are getting tired of playing against each other. Everybody is just going through it this time of the year,” Barbee said. “I think they will come out and play with a sense of urgency. It always usually happens when they get that first experience playing against somebody else.”

That “somebody else” in this case is Paine College, the NAIA Division II school Auburn welcomes into Auburn Arena on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. for the first of the Tigers’ two preseason exhibitions.

The Lions finished 11-17 last year and are a preseason pick to finish eighth in the 13-team Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference this year.

But the Tigers’ first true game action since March isn’t so much about the “somebody else” as it is about giving Barbee a gauge of how far his team’s come in eight months.

“I just want to see that we are getting it offensively: what we are trying to accomplish, how we are trying to execute, the shots we are trying to get,” Barbee said. “Then on the defensive end of the floor, I just want to see us play with a meanness, a nastiness and a toughness.”

New ways of finding consistent offense is an emphasis in Barbee’s second year, after his team suffered through severe ups and downs producing points during an 11-20 inaugural campaign.

Transfer point guard Varez Ward showed the ability to be an offensive threat for the Tigers with a squad-high 18 points in Saturday’s scrimmage, hitting 7-of-14 shots, including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc.

Ward, who sat out last year after transferring from Texas — and also rehabbing an injury he suffered with the Longhorns — is not the only fresh face in the Tigers’ starting lineup.

Sophomore Allen Payne takes over the swingman post opened up when leading scorer Earnest Ross transferred to Missouri, and Frankie Sullivan steps in at shooting guard after playing only six games due to a knee injury last year.

The Tigers’ other two starters — forward Kenny Gabriel and center Rob Chubb — are mainstays from last year’s team.

Auburn also returns key cogs on the bench — such as shooting guard Chris Denson, forward Josh Langford and Josh Wallace, last year’s starter at point — and adds freshman shooting guard Cedrick McAfee and center Willy Kouassi to the fray.

“We have some veteran guys who are figuring things out,” Barbee said. “They have been here through last year, and they’ve gotten better from what we taught them last year. We have some other guys who just quite haven’t figured it out. The young kids, the freshmen, they have a long way to go as all freshman do.”

Barbee will get to see how far his freshmen still have to travel starting Tuesday.

“I’m getting tired of beating up on my teammates every day,” Ward said. “It will exciting to finally play somebody else.”

Paine College (0-0) at Auburn (0-0)

WHERE: Auburn Arena

WHEN: 7 p.m.

RADIO/TV: WKKR (97.7 FM)/None

PROJECTED STARTERS, AUBURN*: F Allen Payne, 6-6, So. (5.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 0.9 spg); F Kenny Gabriel, 6-8, Sr. (10.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 0.9 bpg); C Rob Chubb, 6-10, Jr. (7.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 0.7 bpg); G Varez Ward, 6-2, So. (sat out last season); G Frankie Sullivan, 6-1, Jr. (8.2 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 3.0 apg)

PROJECTED STARTERS, PAINE COLLEGE*: F Geno Green, 6-5, Sr. (9.5 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.2 bpg); F Chris Hunt, 6-5, Jr. (8.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 0.7 spg); G Tony Baker, 6-3, Sr. (10.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 0.8 apg); G Preston Hodge, 5-11, So. (3.5 ppg, 0.8 rpg, 1.0 apg); G Mario Jordan, 5-10, Jr. (14.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 1.4 apg)

NOTABLE
—Ward, a Montgomery native, chose his number (50) because he idolized former Auburn point guard Doc Robinson growing up.

—Chubb bulked up by 20 pounds — to 242 — over the offseason.

—Paine College athletic director Tim Duncan — no, not that Tim Duncan — played with Auburn assistant coach Tony Madlock at Memphis State, helping lead the Tigers to the Elite 8 in 1992.

* – Stats from last season.