Auburn picked to finish 11th in SEC

[Tiger 8,817]

5 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Shoot...I don't know what happened....just saying that if you look back to 2014 people on this board were on cloud nine about the recruiting and the prospects for the team.....the below is pretty typical..  The recruiting looked good, some well respected players who everyone was excited to get...and mostly who never panned out. 

"I was thinking about our possible lineup for next season already, and it got me really excited about the possibilities.

PG - Kareem Canty 6-0 / New Williams 6-2

SG - Tahj Shamsid-Deen 5-10 / Bryce Brown 6-2

SG/SF - TJ Dunans 6-5 / Danjel Purifoy 6-6 / Jack Purchase 6-8 / TJ Lang 6-7

PF - Cimeon Bowers 6-7 / Horace Spencer 6-8 / Jordon Granger 6-8 / Devin Waddell 6-5

C - Trayvon Reed 7-1 / Mathew Atewe 6-9

I don't think I left anyone out; however, I possibly could have. To me, it looks like we could make it to the NCAA tournament next year if everything goes smoothly between this year and next. The only weak spot we may have on the team next year will be depth at the 1 and 2 guards. You can definitely see, though, how quickly Bruce is getting the right personnel in Auburn to turn the program around. "

 

 

Only thing I would say is that its really easy to get excited about players you have never seen before. Going into the year the reason for optimism was that our talent was upgrading, IMO. And sometimes people get carried away (see the football forum), and then when we finally get to see the guys play for ourselves in games is when expectations should be adjusted to reality. If one was to look at the personnel on the court and not on paper it was clear that we had real issues with our roster. As was to be expected by those who understood the crater that Pearl was having to drag this program out of. Ellis put us in a bad spot, Lebo made it worse, and Barbee miraculously took us to possibly a bottom 15 power 5 program in the entire nation. It's going to take time. But we can finally NOW see the light at the end of the tunnel IMO even if we don't have a stellar year this year, the foundation is almost complete. JMO though

[lionheartkc 6,150]

14 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Shoot...I don't know what happened....just saying that if you look back to 2014 people on this board were on cloud nine about the recruiting and the prospects for the team.....the below is pretty typical..  The recruiting looked good, some well respected players who everyone was excited to get...and mostly who never panned out. 

"I was thinking about our possible lineup for next season already, and it got me really excited about the possibilities.

PG - Kareem Canty 6-0 / New Williams 6-2

SG - Tahj Shamsid-Deen 5-10 / Bryce Brown 6-2

SG/SF - TJ Dunans 6-5 / Danjel Purifoy 6-6 / Jack Purchase 6-8 / TJ Lang 6-7

PF - Cimeon Bowers 6-7 / Horace Spencer 6-8 / Jordon Granger 6-8 / Devin Waddell 6-5

C - Trayvon Reed 7-1 / Mathew Atewe 6-9

I don't think I left anyone out; however, I possibly could have. To me, it looks like we could make it to the NCAA tournament next year if everything goes smoothly between this year and next. The only weak spot we may have on the team next year will be depth at the 1 and 2 guards. You can definitely see, though, how quickly Bruce is getting the right personnel in Auburn to turn the program around. "

 

 

Had everyone on that list been eligible, stayed healthy, or stayed around... it might have made a serious difference.

[AU64 10,122]

22 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Had everyone on that list been eligible, stayed healthy, or stayed around... it might have made a serious difference.

So true.....and it was worse than just losing a couple guys. ....lost most of that group before they made much of an impact....

And, it seems like forever, that has been the case with AU basketball....so many prospects that look really good (as Tiger noted), and then we lose them for one reason or another or they have some critical weakness in their game that limits their success.   Generally there is not enough depth on a basketball squad to overcome the impact when 2 or 3 (or more) important prospects don't make it.    Thus my cautious attitude.

[gravejd 3,267]

14 hours ago, AU64 said:

You might want to look at that roster...a bunch of transfers with serious experience and guys like Chris Denson and others.  The team collapsed in the SEC part of the season but still won some SEC tournament games.  People have their own views but IMO, that team was talented enough....and had the front end schedule to make the NIT though many folks on this site were expecting even more when they considered the transfers he brought in....pretty solid guys....and of course BP's enthusiasm fired people up.. . 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014–15_Auburn_Tigers_men's_basketball_team

 

 

I don't think that wiki is accurate....i was thinking Chris Denson graduated the year before Pearl took over... try this one instead which is from AU http://www.auburntigers.com/sports/m-baskbl/roster-mtt.html

Basically that team had KT Harrell and TSD returning from the previous year as the only players with a pulse. The rest of the team was thrown together with transfers. I'm pretty sure TSD then missed most of the year with shoulder problems. So there was probably "hope" from some we could make the NIT with that team and i'm sure people were excited cause Pearl was able to add some pretty decent players at the last minute. But to say you "expect" a team like that to make the NIT with a bunch of guys who have never played together is asking a lot in my opinion. I'd give you that they probably could have won 3-4 more SEC games that year but that certainly wouldn't have been enough for an NIT bid. 

[aujeff11 6,243]

I think he forgets how bad of shape Barbee   left our program.

[ArgoEagle 1,765]

We need to think baby steps. Our Bball program has sucked for so long and now we have definitely got the right coach to make us relevant again. It does not matter where we are ranked pre-season. I think our immediate goal should be at worst an NIT spot, and if things all come together and we get NCAA so be it. We need to let the media do and say what they are going to, and let Pearl work his magic, and over the next two years we will be fine. We will be relevant again in Bball in time.

[Tiger 8,817]

26 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

We need to think baby steps. Our Bball program has sucked for so long and now we have definitely got the right coach to make us relevant again. It does not matter where we are ranked pre-season. I think our immediate goal should be at worst an NIT spot, and if things all come together and we get NCAA so be it. We need to let the media do and say what they are going to, and let Pearl work his magic, and over the next two years we will be fine. We will be relevant again in Bball in time.

I see why your likes/post count ratio is so favorable.

[ArgoEagle 1,765]

19 hours ago, Tiger said:

I see why your likes/post count ratio is so favorable.

Thank you.  I try not to comment on topics that I am kind of ignorant about, such as recruiting. I do know quite a bit about basketball and football and try to stick to those catagories more and soak up knowledge from other posters on here. In the book of James, it says be "swift to hear and slow to speak".

[Tiger 8,817]

27 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

Thank you.  I try not to comment on topics that I am kind of ignorant about, such as recruiting. I do know quite a bit about basketball and football and try to stick to those catagories more and soak up knowledge from other posters on here. In the book of James, it says be "swift to hear and slow to speak".

Keep doing your thing, boss

[WeagleAU 594]

Until Coach Pearl can get his team to make it happen on the court, I think this ranking is fair.   At least they're not last, which they very well could be.  

But Pearl deserves credit with recruiting.  Barbee pretty much left the program in shambles.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

Last year when we were optimistic that DP would be eligible, the roster looked like a team that could make the post season. With him out, and Dunans out half the season, and then Kanty quitting, we lost our top 3 players for the majority of the year. No team makes the tourney that way. I was optimistic about post season play last year, and this roster is 3x better than last season. 

 

I expect to make a post season tournament this year. 

[AuburnNTexas 7,127]

On 10/20/2016 at 11:37 AM, lionheartkc said:

Had everyone on that list been eligible, stayed healthy, or stayed around... it might have made a serious difference.

That was my post and I stick by it. If all those people had stayed and if they had remained healthy it would have been a different team. Reed and Purifoy never made it to a game, Shamsid-Dean who played well when not hurt got hurt early, Dunans got hurt and then we lost Canty because of his meltdown.  Part of my reason for optimism was based on depth and the key statement wasn't that we would make the NCAA it was we could make the NCAA. When because of injury you have Bowers playing PG predictions go out the window.  

 

This year we still have size issues but we have way more depth then in past years. I feel that we have talent to make NIT and I will say same as last year that we could make the NCAA. The NCAA will take team coming together quickly and being able to play some D as they learn their roles. I wouldn't bet money on the NCAA but I would on the NIT. As Pearl showed two years ago he can ride a couple of hot players and exceed expectations and last year as seen when we beat Kentucky we had some potential before the wheels fell off the bus.

 

All bets are off if we have issues around injury or player attitude. It is not unrealistic to expect this to be one of out better teams in the last 5 years.  Ask me around Jan. 1 after we have seen a little more of the players to see if they are talented players playing as individuals or talented players playing as a team.

 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

2 minutes ago, AuburnNTexas said:

That was my post and I stick by it. If all those people had stayed and if they had remained healthy it would have been a different team. Reed and Purifoy never made it to a game, Shamsid-Dean who played well when not hurt got hurt early, Dunans got hurt and then we lost Canty because of his meltdown.  Part of my reason for optimism was based on depth and the key statement wasn't that we would make the NCAA it was we could make the NCAA. When because of injurt you have Bowers playing PG predictions go out the window.  

This year we still have size issues but we have way more depth then in past years. I feel that we have talent to make NIT and I will say same as last year that we could make the NCAA. The NCAA will take team coming together quickly and being able to play some D as they learn their roles. I wouldn't bet money on the NCAA but I would on the NIT. As Pearl showed two years ago he can ride a couple of hot players and exceed expectations and lst year as seen when we beat Kentucky we had some potential before the wheels fell off the bus.

All bets are off if we have issues around injury or player attitude. It is not unrealistic to expect this to be one of out better teams in the last 5 years.  Ask me around Jan. 1 after we have seen a little more of the players to see if they are talented players playing as individuals or talented players playing as a team.

I'm with you all the way.  The only thing that has me questioning the team is @cole256 seeing the team and not liking what he's seeing from defense. Since his level of basketball knowledge makes mine look like a "for dummies" book, I take that pretty seriously.

[AuburnNTexas 7,127]

41 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

I'm with you all the way.  The only thing that has me questioning the team is @cole256 seeing the team and not liking what he's seeing from defense. Since his level of basketball knowledge makes mine look like a "for dummies" book, I take that pretty seriously.

You are correct in trusting Cole. But at this point in the season it is like an NBA All Star game (I am not comparing our Players to NBA All Stars) .  Most of them are talented on both ends of the court but when they first get together The O always outshines the D.  What we are seeing are individual players who have talent who are showing that talent. D even man to man takes time to develop as a team, You have to get to know your teammates one guy fights threw screens and picks well so I don't have to switch another guy isn't as good fighting through though screens so I need to be ready to switch. There is a tremendous amount of communication needed to play good D especially with so many new players.

So what we know is we have some players who are talented individually on O. We need to see three more things before we can feel good about them as team.

1. They grow as a group and keep getting better on both individual D and more importantly team D.

2. When they face an experienced team that plays good D they can play within a system to free people up to score as opposed to relying on one on one play.

3. Since we are smaller then many team that we block out well and find a way to match up on the boards.

[NoALtiger 3,849]

On October 21, 2016 at 11:10 AM, WeagleAU said:

Until Coach Pearl can get his team to make it happen on the court, I think this ranking is fair.   At least they're not last, which they very well could be.  

But Pearl deserves credit with recruiting.  Barbee pretty much left the program in shambles.

Ha, no pretty much to it. Bruce took over a program completely in shambles and has had to completely rebuild. IMO, what he and the staff has done so far is astounding. 

[aujeff11 6,243]

^^ Thank you. @AU64 chooses to ignore the shape of our program that Barbee left for Pearl, and he also chooses to deny the undeniable progress that Pearl has made since his arrival. Not sure if it's because of his admitted bias against Pearl, or if it's because his head is three feet deep in sand, but he has continued to be overtly negative of all of Pearl's work at Auburn. Gets old quick. Maybe he should just stop watching Auburn basketball. 

[AU64 10,122]

59 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

^^ Thank you. @AU64 chooses to ignore the shape of our program that Barbee left for Pearl, and he also chooses to deny the undeniable progress that Pearl has made since his arrival. Not sure if it's because of his admitted bias against Pearl, or if it's because his head is three feet deep in sand, but he has continued to be overtly negative of all of Pearl's work at Auburn. Gets old quick. Maybe he should just stop watching Auburn basketball. 

Please quit reading my comments ....or at least pay attention. JMO but the shape of our program was worse in BP's second year than in year #1 after Barbee left.  In year #2, most players were gone from his year #1.   And now again, in year #3 he is starting with a mostly new line-up having lost most impact players from a pretty poor year #2     I admit the players this year have better resume's than in past years.  Meantime, I'm still waiting for BP to show us what he can do....other than sell tickets which I admit is no small thing.    

Just wondering why it seems perfectly acceptable on this board for people to call for Gus or RL or Garner....or you name him.....to be fired....but no one is allowed to suggest that BP has perhaps not earned his salary yet?  

[aujeff11 6,243]

38 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Just wondering why it seems perfectly acceptable on this board for people to call for Gus or RL or Garner....or you name him.....to be fired....but no one is allowed to suggest that BP has perhaps not earned his salary yet?  

Because it's absurd to suggest that BP hasn't earned his salary yet. That's why.

[ArgoEagle 1,765]

On ‎10‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 4:20 PM, aujeff11 said:

Because it's absurd to suggest that BP hasn't earned his salary yet. That's why.

Gotta go with you Jeff. You can't compare football programs to bball programs. 2 totally different things. In football, there are 2 different units with 11 players on each side. In bball there are only 5 players at a time and those five have to be talented, and they have to have 2-3 backup players that can give them a quality rest and contribute while they are on the court as well. In football you have almost 5 times as many players to build around and can win with a lower percentage of talented players. Any commentator, or bball coach who engages in a conversation on tv will say BP knows what he is doing, AU has made a splash hire with him, and he is one of the premier coaches in College Bball. He has had to build this program up from scratch with virtually nothing to work with, but a horrible program and I am extremely confident that he is the man that can bring AU bball back to being a respectable, and possibly feared entity ( IN TIME).

[augolf1716 21,093]

On 10/22/2016 at 4:40 PM, AU64 said:

Please quit reading my comments ....or at least pay attention. JMO but the shape of our program was worse in BP's second year than in year #1 after Barbee left.  In year #2, most players were gone from his year #1.   And now again, in year #3 he is starting with a mostly new line-up having lost most impact players from a pretty poor year #2     I admit the players this year have better resume's than in past years.  Meantime, I'm still waiting for BP to show us what he can do....other than sell tickets which I admit is no small thing.    

Just wondering why it seems perfectly acceptable on this board for people to call for Gus or RL or Garner....or you name him.....to be fired....but no one is allowed to suggest that BP has perhaps not earned his salary yet?  

Your allowed but you have to admit he has earned his salary just by selling out season ticket alone. Now he needs to product on the court

[AU64 10,122]

Just now, augolf1716 said:

Your allowed but you have to admit he has earned his salary just by selling out season ticket alone. Now he needs to product on the court

I agree that getting that ticket sales was a heck of a task.....changed the atmosphere of the games and despite a losing record, he's kept the students involved with the team which I hope pays off when things pick up on the floor. 

[augolf1716 21,093]

14 minutes ago, AU64 said:

I agree that getting that ticket sales was a heck of a task.....changed the atmosphere of the games and despite a losing record, he's kept the students involved with the team which I hope pays off when things pick up on the floor. 

[AU80cruiser 1,102]

13 hours ago, AU64 said:

I agree that getting that ticket sales was a heck of a task.....changed the atmosphere of the games and despite a losing record, he's kept the students involved with the team which I hope pays off when things pick up on the floor. 

I don't want to put words in aujeffs mouth but I think this is what he meant by the program was in shambles. It was so bad that Pearl couldn't just start by recruiting good players. He had to recruit fans first, to sell the better players on the idea of Auburn basketball. Who wants to play in front of a stagnant fanbase? Not many highly ranked 5 stars (or even 1 for that matter). Now that the fans are coming, so are the stars. It's just a matter of time before it pays off big. I don't watch or care about basketball but Im starting to because of Pearl and what I see he's doing for AU.

[Tiger 8,817]

I'm glad we actually have 2 point guards on this year's roster, even if one is a freshman it's better than our 2nd option at PG being a walkon like we had last year backing up Canty before he freaked out. Our wing play should be problematic for opponents we have a mix of pretty good size and shooting ability, especially if we can somehow afford to play Danjel at the 3 for some chunks of time -- which is probably unlikely considering our front court/height is going to be our weakness. We are going to need Horace Spencer to stay out of foul trouble this season as last year it seemed like he would be out of control on defense from time to time. But that kid has potential I really enjoy watching his energy

[cole256 17,039]

On 10/21/2016 at 1:18 PM, lionheartkc said:

I'm with you all the way.  The only thing that has me questioning the team is @cole256 seeing the team and not liking what he's seeing from defense. Since his level of basketball knowledge makes mine look like a "for dummies" book, I take that pretty seriously.

Just saw this. I'm just nervous and want us to be good so I may be over reacting. Especially from film of a pre season scrimmage. There were some habits I noticed from some guys defensively that I didn't care for and they were effort related and effort related mistakes scares me. If you want though we can talk about it and I can tell you what I thought I saw and you can tell me the things you notice as well