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Heading into conference play


JwgreDeux

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We are not yet quite through half of the regular season, and Auburn has 10 wins. That is truly something to be encouraged by as we begin conference play. Overall I would say this group has exceeded expectations thus far, with wins over Texas Tech, Oklahoma, and UConn, but our loss to Boston College has really set us back from where we could be. 

 

Currently, we are sitting at #52 in the RPI, putting us 6th in the SEC, a conference that is currently ranked as the 5th best with 10 top 100 RPI teams. Depending on the predictor you prefer, the SEC is forecast to get as few as 4 teams and as many as 6 teams into the NCAA tourney. I still believe we are worthy of bubble conversation at the moment, but that is based on the SEC staying strong enough to secure 5 or more bids to the dance; last season we only received 3. 

 

We are about to face the most difficult part of our schedule with 3 straight games vs top 100 RPI teams, Georgia, at Vandy, and Ole Miss. We will be half way through the season after those three games, and will have a very good feeling for where this group of Tigers is headed. All three of these games are winnable, but they are all lose-able as well. Based on the predictive metrics, I'd expect the Vegas line to be withing +/- 3 points for each game. We have to win our games at home in this stretch, and Georgia will provide a difficult starting point. 

 

We have great momentum heading into that tilt however, not only with big wins over Oklahoma and UConn, but with 5 days between games, Wiley will have had some additional practices with his new teammates. Additionally, Brown and Spencer are likely inching their way back into CBP's good graces and we look to start conference play with the strongest roster we have had for any game all season, almost a new team. That brings excitement and worry, as chemistry has clearly not been fully developed with this group yet. The only players who seem to have ironed out there places are Harper and Heron, from a production standpoint. Dunans and Purifoy have had good stretches, but still are finding themselves in our new lineup. 

 

Our freshmen are playing like freshmen, very talented freshmen that is, but have shown signs of maturity in different games. We started the season 4-0, hit some challenges and went 2-2 over the next four games, and responded by going 4-0 bringing us to this point. Looking are the various bracketology sites out there, we are currently being given a 25% chance to make the field, with a record around 20-11. I think it will take a better resume than that, but this is just my opinion, and I also think there is plenty of reason to think we have a chance. We can continue to build that resume Thursday as we open SEC play. 

War Eagle. 

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8 minutes ago, Timeslider 6 said:

Anyone know how our lineups match up against those next three teams? i mean are they tall in the front court or like us?

@JwgreDeux will have an in depth update before each game and I'm sure that will be included.

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13 minutes ago, Timeslider 6 said:

Anyone know how our lineups match up against those next three teams? i mean are they tall in the front court or like us?

From what I've seen of UGA, AU will not match up well inside. They are big and athletic. AU will need to be lights out from 3 to create enough offense to beat UGA. 

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1 hour ago, jared52 said:

From what I've seen of UGA, AU will not match up well inside. They are big and athletic. AU will need to be lights out from 3 to create enough offense to beat UGA. 

Seeing Spencer's limited time vs uconn hopefully bodes well for us it terms of getting more interior presence back. And, imo, DP has started to come on as more of a rebounder down low in these past few games. 

This upcoming five game stretch (ending with Kentucky) will definitely a lot of different aspects of this young team, no doubt. And I agree with you that so far our biggest problems seem to be down low but with more experience under Wiley's belt and the re addition of Spencer we can hope that gets better 

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15 minutes ago, Charhair said:

Seeing Spencer's limited time vs uconn hopefully bodes well for us it terms of getting more interior presence back. And, imo, DP has started to come on as more of a rebounder down low in these past few games. 

This upcoming five game stretch (ending with Kentucky) will definitely a lot of different aspects of this young team, no doubt. And I agree with you that so far our biggest problems seem to be down low but with more experience under Wiley's belt and the re addition of Spencer we can hope that gets better 

 

1 hour ago, jared52 said:

From what I've seen of UGA, AU will not match up well inside. They are big and athletic. AU will need to be lights out from 3 to create enough offense to beat UGA. 

They are not as big or as physical as UConn was down low, few teams will be. The question isn't can we match up with one given team, it's a question of consistency that we don't have the answer to...yet. 

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57 minutes ago, JwgreDeux said:

 

They are not as big or as physical as UConn was down low, few teams will be. The question isn't can we match up with one given team, it's a question of consistency that we don't have the answer to...yet. 

I have only seen UGA once and I had to listen to the UCONN game, so I could certainly be wrong, but UGA looks to have a couple of really big (read muscular) post players that will have little trouble knocking Wiley and Spencer around. I'm looking forward to the matchup though as I do think it will give us a real good idea of where AU is. 

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@JwgreDeux your insight pre/post games is phenomenal.. really enjoying these write ups.

My X-factor is Purifoy. If he can give us 8+ rebounds, and become a consistent offensive threat(esp. from 3), this team gets a huge boost IMO.

I personally don't think UConn was a real test. Yes they're big/physical, but that team missed a TON of open shots after Jalen Adams went out with a concussion. Not discounting the win, just going to wait another couple games to judge if we are tournament-worthy.

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7 hours ago, jared52 said:

From what I've seen of UGA, AU will not match up well inside. They are big and athletic. AU will need to be lights out from 3 to create enough offense to beat UGA. 

Well, it was quite a similar story when we went on the road to UCONN and we did not exactly shoot the lights out from 3 up there. We did generate enough offense off the dribble-drive to win the game though, and some of that, I think, will need to come up against UGA. We'all hit some threes, but I think we need to continue to hammer away at attacking the rim; we have some very good finishers at the rim on this team. 

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Man that BC loss is going to sting all year. I bet we'd be a top 25 team right now had we not blown that game. But outside of that I couldn't be happier about where this team is. I was expecting more growing pains then we've seen so far and while I thought adding Wiley would help in the long run, I was expecting us to drop a couple games while we adjusted to having him on the team. Thanks to a some clutch shots that hasn't happened yet. I feel like Dunans and Harper are both starting to get comfortable in their roles on this team which is an awesome thing heading into SEC play. Purifoy has the ability to go off at any time as seen in the CC game, but i liked how he played in the UCONN game. He was able to contribute even when the shots weren't failing and that is huge for the team. Looking forward to seeing how our team handles the SEC grind they are about to face. Hopefully that OOC schedule we just went through will have them prepared for it. 

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We need folks in the seats this uga game. No students, in sec opener is tough.  So get in your car make the drive and join us at the game tickets will be easy. 

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2 hours ago, gonefhin said:

We need folks in the seats this uga game. No students, in sec opener is tough.  So get in your car make the drive and join us at the game tickets will be easy. 

It's a complete sellout. There's not even any standing room only tickets left. The students will be there.

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16 hours ago, ellitor said:

It's a complete sellout. There's not even any standing room only tickets left. The students will be there.

 That will be nice to see. It is disappointing to hear the announcers talk about a game being a sellout and yet see thousands of empty seats.   The arena is the perfect size for Auburn .....crowd can be a factor folks show up. 

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HALF PRICE TICKETS to Vanderbilt game, Wednesday in Nashville.

I'm new here and could not find a link to post a new topic. Hopefully, some of you interested in going to the game will see this.

 

4 tickets together on the front row center of Section 3L.

4 together in 3D, Row 8

4 together in 3D, Row 11, on the aisle

 

The tickets in Section 3D have the chairbacks with cushions and arms. Very nice!

Asking $20 for 2 / $35 for 4

I will be the game, but won't be checking PMs here.

CALL or TEXT and I will let you know where I am at the time. Or if you are walking up, I'm probably going to wear a Yellow jacket (not Georgia Tech) and a Black and Gold wool cap.


Cell: 502-594-8014

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I have been traveling over the holidays and haven't been able to due any in depth looks at the Georgia or Vandy games, but hope to get back to it at the end of this week. Anyway, we need the Vandy game. We are going to be a dog on the road, in a weird gym, but need a win in the worst way. One thing that will be interesting to watch is how much we improve over recent games. We have responded well to losses so far in this young season, and will have had almost 10 practices, since the UConn game, and only 1 game during that stretch. That time could help this team in many ways. Hopefully, we have ironed out some kinks on the defensive end. Vandy isn't a great rebounding team, and we might actually have the slight advantage in that area for a change. They also have 4 guys that average nearly 30 minutes a game. Some tempo could wear them down, and good dribble drives could put them in foul trouble. I would look for us to force the issue at the rim and not settle for jumpers tomorrow night. 

 

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Hey guys, before I make this post just figured I should say I'm a new member who's been a big time auburn fan my whole life but never had an account. I decided to get one now because I'm so upset over the sugar bowl that I need a place to start communicating with other auburn fans about their opinions. Anyways, I wanted to see what everyones thinking about how we recover from the georgia loss. I know they are a good team but what worries me is that we have 2 tough games coming up before a rather easy win vs mizzou.  I dont know about yall but I honestly feel we need to win tomorrow, saturday vs ole miss, and obviously next week vs mizzou before we go into Rupp Arena to get slaughtered by Kentucky. If we can pull this off we will leave Rupp 3-2 in conference play vs 2-3 which is huge.  Do you guys think this is realistic or should I prepare for a few losses in the next three games?

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3 hours ago, au302 said:

Hey guys, before I make this post just figured I should say I'm a new member who's been a big time auburn fan my whole life but never had an account. I decided to get one now because I'm so upset over the sugar bowl that I need a place to start communicating with other auburn fans about their opinions. Anyways, I wanted to see what everyones thinking about how we recover from the georgia loss. I know they are a good team but what worries me is that we have 2 tough games coming up before a rather easy win vs mizzou.  I dont know about yall but I honestly feel we need to win tomorrow, saturday vs ole miss, and obviously next week vs mizzou before we go into Rupp Arena to get slaughtered by Kentucky. If we can pull this off we will leave Rupp 3-2 in conference play vs 2-3 which is huge.  Do you guys think this is realistic or should I prepare for a few losses in the next three games?

Imo, it's hard to tell what we should expect. Some games I feel like the team chemistry is that of a 5 v 5 pickup game with random players. Other times we're on fire and look like a solid bubble team. That's what comes with such talented youth, id have to believe. There's really no way to tell how we'll bounce back, based on this team's history it should be great (following as we upped our performance after our first two losses but we're into a harder part of the schedule with a more fatigued team that's still getting used to a new starter on the team so I'm not sure what to expect. 

While we do still have the valid excuse of youth, seeing how our team and coaches handle Vandy after an opening SEC game lost against rival uga at home may be somewhat telling of what to expect or at least what needs working on mentality wise (considering we have so much youth who may not know how to handle so much against such good competition down the stretch, yet.

 

side note: looks like that W against Texas Tech will probably end up being one of our best OOC wins. Currently 12-2 and just took down #7 WVU in OT. Finally found a Big12 team I can somewhat root for 

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in the georgia game, our youth really showed ... at that was at home.  Vandy and kentucky are gonna be really tough away games.  i've never really understood why the away teams have such problems (think of the basketball court measuring scene in Hoosiers ...) ... i'm a geeky engineer so I dont understand that sort of thing, but it is real in college basketball and vandy is tough for seasoned teams.

with this youth, the highs will be high and the lows will be exhausting.  it is what it is.  i dont know the makeup of vandy, but any veteran team is going to give our guys trouble, particularly when we are the visitors.  Charhair makes a good point ... our guys are going to start hitting the fatigue wall and that will be a tough place mentally against typically physical sec foes.

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2 hours ago, mustache eagle said:

in the georgia game, our youth really showed ... at that was at home.  Vandy and kentucky are gonna be really tough away games.  i've never really understood why the away teams have such problems (think of the basketball court measuring scene in Hoosiers ...) ... i'm a geeky engineer so I dont understand that sort of thing, but it is real in college basketball and vandy is tough for seasoned teams.

with this youth, the highs will be high and the lows will be exhausting.  it is what it is.  i dont know the makeup of vandy, but any veteran team is going to give our guys trouble, particularly when we are the visitors.  Charhair makes a good point ... our guys are going to start hitting the fatigue wall and that will be a tough place mentally against typically physical sec foes.

I'm a geeky engineer as well, but I can hoop. Away games effect younger guys in the beginning because they aren't used to playing crowds that size. They have NBA dreams and want to impressimpress. Games on tv add more spotlight. The home team shoot and practice on those goals. After you practice so much on the same goal it becomes muscle memory sometimes shooting shots. So not having that can cause trouble, especially a team that shoots alot of jump shots like ours.

The bounce of the court can be different, hostile fans, anxiety, cheering loud for you is completely different than loud cheering against you.

When you're not nestled in your position yet, you could still be nervous that a mistake means you sit.

Travel distance, food, just a different routine than you're used to, ALL those things can impact a guy. 

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I actually like the way we matchup vs Vandy statistically, and rosterwise. This will be a difficult game for us from a communication standpoint due to Vandy's gym layout. The team bench is along the end line, so there will be times when our coaches are on the opposite end of the floor from the action. So when offense is on the same end of the court with the coaches, not much of a difference for that half, as when on defense we will be facing the end where our coaches are, but when defense is on the same end of the floor with our coaches, our backs will be to the bench and on offense we also have have our backs to the bench and be on the opposite end of the floor. 

 

Puts a lot of pressure on the point on offense and on the entire defense to communicate without as many calls from the bench., Tremendous home court advantage for Vandy. There is a reason we haven't won in Nashville in 15 years.  However, they have little depth and not the same size as years past. 

 

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How long has it been since we have beat Vandy in that awful, weird and ugly gym? I honestly cannot remember and I am usually pretty good at this sort of stuff. That place has been a house of horrors for us. I REALLY want us to whip them. I hate vandy.

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Let's get a big win tonight AU! A win at Vandy is another item to check off the list (reminds me of winning in Athens on the football side).

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If we can shoot well, get their big man in foul trouble and knock it down from the charity stripe, I think we have a shot, but this Vandy team is a good team. if we come out cold and they hit their stride, this one is going to be over quickly. Season is still young and it is not a must win, but we have not won here in a looooooooong time and a win here would be special. OTOH, a hard fought loss would not be the end of the season. Austin Wiley is going to gain some great experience. We need Danjel to show he can play D tonight and we have to play really good defense to keep them from getting on a shooting tear. We have our hands full. WDE! 

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