gravejd

I feel pretty confident that we'll see Spencer a good bit at the 5 spot this year. It may or may not be his natural position but Pearl loves to have a 4 that can make outside shots and that is not in Spencer's game. His game is to hang around the basket to clean up the glass and streak to the basket on drives for a dish. He actually fits the 5 really well for the offense we run which is predicated on a lot of movement and running the floor and not so much half court stuff like posting under the basket. This is a very exciting 2 deep that we have and with the addition of J'von we can run out 2 legit 5 man rotations or we can mix and match as we go. Few teams can run out 3 guys like McLemore, Okeke, and Purifoy. Those are 3 big guys that bring different skills and strengths to the table and will allow us to be extremely versatile in what we want to do. You guys haven't see full court pressure like we'll see this year if everyone makes it to the season. I don't think this will be the starting lineup but i could see us using something like this as our "death squad" put this group in during the second half and just run the other team off the floor: Harper, Brown, Purifoy, Okeke, McLemore That is a lineup where all 5 can score from deep. All 5 can handle the ball. All 5 can take it to the basket. We also don't give up much on the defensive side cause we have both Okeke and McLmore to protect the rim, Harper and Brown to harass the ball handler and Purifoy to provide defensive length on the perimeter. Going to be a long wait for the season to get here!

I mean was there any doubt Pearl would find a solid option to run PG behind Harper? Welcome to the team Jvon!

good for him and i hope he enjoys the new position

I do really hope Heron goes on to big things in his life. I appreciate what he gave to auburn the last couple years. I really don't see how this transfer gets him closer to his NBA dream but if it was just to get closer to his mom and family then mission accomplished. But this guarantees he won't be any closer to the NBA after next season. I think the team is going to run a bit smoother next year with him gone. Offense got stagnant a couple times with Brown and Heron playing iso ball. Hoping we see less of that next year.

2:30 game in mid Sept. I'll be feeling for those in the stands. That will likely be a scorcher

Poor wording on my part. I agree that Okeke has a better all around offensive game then McLemore. But i also think Okeke gets slightly over hyped due to the Tenn game.

Hard to argue that Okeke has a better offensive game based on last year. Much better off the dribble no doubt and mid range do doubt. I'm not as convinced of Okeke's 3 point shoot being that much better...but we are comparing a freshmen and Sophmore here. I think McLemore has okeke on the D side and rebounding. But again not a lot of separation. Going to be 2 players i really enjoy watching grow next year

i just don't see how you don't start McLemore. Dude is so explosive running the floor and his defense on the inside is top notch. If he can improve his 3 just a touch then there isn't a whole lot of difference in his and Okeke's offensive game. I also like the lineup of having Purifoy at the 3 okeke at the 4 and McLemore at the 5. That gives us size and scoring ability from everywhere on the floor and creates crazy matchup problems on D as well. Man Pearl is going to have fun next year!

My starting 5: Harper, Brown, Purifoy, McLemore, Wiley We then have Samir as backup PG and shooting guard. Okeke can play the 3,4,or 5. Dunbar can do the 3 or 4 and then Spencer coming in as a solid backup at the 5 and 4. That is a group of guys that you can do a lot of different things with. We need Okeke to take the next step but if he does we can have a lot of length and scoring on the court at one time

I’m a little gun shy of ex AU players at the moment. But having the best AU b-ball player in the last 30 years on staff seems like a good idea. His first hand knowledge of the game and how to last so long in the nba should be a welcome addition he coaching staff. Hope this is a good intro to coaching for him

Stupid rule created by stupid people, enforced by stupid people, and upheld by stupid people. What can you do with so much stupid?

But can they play football?

I don't know why the players would have mentally checked out on the season. Of the guys playing at the end of the season Heron is the only one you could possibly say that about as he was really the only one playing that had the possibility of going pro. I think injuries and just getting wore out from playing so much with missing so many players just caught up with us and we ran out of gas. And plenty of teams have won championships with the style of play Pearl likes to run. The problem we've had is we haven't had the guys to do it for a full season. Last year after McLemore got hurt we were no longer playing the pressing style Pearl likes to play. Early in the season we were. You can see the difference in results for yourself.

totally agree AUB. For that basketball to have been as great as it was it sure sucked getting bounced by bama in SEC and throttled by Clemson in the NCAA tourney. The reasons it went down that way are legit and understandable. Still a crappy way to end an amazing season. But we get all our guys back we should have the players to make it through the whole season this go around. And with last year ending the way it did i bet they stay hungry too!