If one person says that loss is on coaching... you haven't a clue!

[AU64 10,122]

Just a reminder Lion....AU was sold out the past two years....and the place rocked when the team was hustling and playing well. Surprisingly was rated by someone earlier in the year as one of the best "atmosphere" ...primarily based on students.    The level of effort and play this season IMO had nothing to do with fan support. 

I give BP for changing the "culture" regarding basketball....created a level of excitement not seen at AU in quite a while....but you can only go so far on salesmanship ...then the goods have to be delivered.    That's what everyone wants to see and the obvious flaws in this team (expressed and exposed by Cole and others back in Oct) have not come anywhere close to being addressed.....or resolved.   30+ games and everything pretty much looks the same and a couple players have gone backward IMO. 

Auburn basketball is never going to be Kentucky...but then again, Kentucky football is probably never going to be Auburn....that's just life.  

As I suggested in another post...time for some serious top to bottom self-appraisal.

[Auburn06 76]

1. Fire AD

I am not sure that Auburn can recover from the destruction Jay Jacobs has done to Auburn athletics. 

2. Fire all basketball(and football) coaches

 

3. Hire coaches who recruit people who can actually play basketball(and football)

 

 

 

 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

5 minutes ago, jared52 said:

If KU went years without making the tournament and finished at the bottom of the Big 12 every year, tickets would be readily available. You can't charge people $45 to watch AU play basketball and expect people to fill all the seats. I know they have an arena to pay for, but you can't expect people to get fired up about missing the real post season year over year. If AU gets to the NCAAs next year and demonstrates more progress as a program (consistent recruiting classes, less band-aids, etc), then people will fill AU arena to the brim. In the late 90s, getting tix to AU basketball wasn't always easy, because they were good. People will support good teams, and they did so until AU started flopping against SEC teams. This isn't a fan problem.

Not disagreeing with you, but also saying that it is a bit of a chicken and an egg scenario. We expect players to get up, game after game and perform at a high level (in this year's case, mostly freshman), but we're not willing to support them at a high level until they've "proven they are worth it". 

If you want the best, you have to do your part. It's not all on the fans, but the fans can't be part of the problem by making the players feel inadequate. 

By the way... I was in Auburn in the late 90s.  I never had a problem walking up to the Coliseum and buying tickets right before a game, if I wanted to go.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

3 minutes ago, AU64 said:

The level of effort and play this season IMO had nothing to do with fan support. 

You can say that, but I saw a lot of half empty arena this year. That certainly doesn't hype the team up.

[jared52 4,354]

Just now, lionheartkc said:

Not disagreeing with you, but also saying that it is a bit of a chicken and an egg scenario. We expect players to get up, game after game and perform at a high level (in this year's case, mostly freshman), but we're not willing to support them at a high level until they've "proven they are worth it". 

If you want the best, you have to do your part. It's not all on the fans, but the fans can't be part of the problem by making the players feel inadequate. 

By the way... I was in Auburn in the late 90s.  I never had a problem walking up to the Coliseum and buying tickets right before a game, if I wanted to go.

I was there too. Student tix were available, but the regular seats were usually gone IIRC. Could be mis-remembering or using alternative facts or whatever.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

13 minutes ago, jared52 said:

I was there too. Student tix were available, but the regular seats were usually gone IIRC. Could be mis-remembering or using alternative facts or whatever.

Yea... I stopped being a student in 97.  I still recall being able to get tickets pretty easily... though they were usually up in the corners.  Of course Beard Eaves is bigger than the new Arena.

[jared52 4,354]

Just now, lionheartkc said:

Yea... I stopped being a student in 97.  I still recall being able to get tickets pretty easily.  Of course Coleman is bigger than the new Arena.

Coleman? Blasphemy! May the ghost of Joel Eaves and Jeff Beard haunt you for many, many moons.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

6 minutes ago, jared52 said:

Coleman? Blasphemy! May the ghost of Joel Eaves and Jeff Beard haunt you for many, many moons.

Sorry... my brain is somewhere else... it's been a rough couple of weeks. I'm not even sure where that came from, since I've never even been to Tuscaloosa, let alone their arena...

I fixed it and will say 40 Hail Aubies.

[aubaseball 2,582]

Auburn is not a basketball school. That's just the hard core truth.   Even when Barkley and chuck were playing, you could get tickets with no problem 

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

10 hours ago, PUB78 said:

Three years and no NIT much less NCAA,. BP is behind schedule.

This is wrong. It's your opinion but it's wrong. At least not my schedule.

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, lionheartkc said:

You can say that, but I saw a lot of half empty arena this year. That certainly doesn't hype the team up.

Sorry, I went to every home game and never saw it half empty. Even the last game of the season against the worst team in the league on a saturday afternoon, drew a lot more than i expected. It was not half full. Student section was pretty good, and even the season ticket holders showed up more than i thought...

Sure in December against crappy teams and school out, drew less than hoped. But for team that didnt win many home SEC games, i thought the crowds were pretty darn good.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 minute ago, steeleagle said:

Sorry, I went to every home game and never saw it half empty. Even the last game of the season against the worst team in the league on a saturday afternoon, drew a lot more than i expected. It was not half full. Student section was pretty good, and even the season ticket holders showed up more than i thought...

Sure in December against crappy teams and school out, drew less than hoped. But for team that didnt win many home SEC games, i thought the crowds were pretty darn good.

I can only speak to what I saw on TV... KC is a bit far away to catch a game. 

[steeleagle 2,945]

Just now, lionheartkc said:

I can only speak to what I saw on TV... KC is a bit far away to catch a game. 

Then i give you a pass this time..lol. But i will say this...if we don't improve during next year with more experienced and better players, then you will see a continual drop in attendance..

[FUZZYAUFAN 134]

Last nights loss along with the season was very frustrating. However I see a team which should be even better next year. 

[Hooverwareagle 24]

I took my kids to a game in December and no good seats available.  Fortunately, a nice couple gave us a couple of decent tickets and then we bought another at the gate.  You walk in and half the reserved seats are empty!  We sat on second row in someone's empty seats.  I think we have a large majority of boosters that buy season tickets but do not go to the game.  How about selling your tickets if you are not going to go to the games?

[au302 2,669]

4 hours ago, steeleagle said:

It was Heron they put at the FT line to shoot the T shots. But I agree, Purifoy should have been at the line.

The problems I had late in the game:

1. RJ was the better person to control the game late in the game, trying to milk some clock. Even Pearl in postgame was asked about not playing RJ done the stretch with game pressure, and using your grad senior instead of the freshman. He said that was on him. RJ never even played the overtime or the last 3 mins of regulation.

2. Harper had NO business pushing off with 15 secs and only needing them to foul us, shooting a pair, up by 3. He does not know how to raw fouls, but always seem to avoid it or adjusts his own shot as to not be fouled even going in hard to the basket.

Those are the mistakes that cost us the game imo. Harper should not have been in the game and he should not have been shooting the free throws when they counted. BP just loves Harper. Always talking him up about "he's worth the price of admission." Look, i think Harper can be a very good player but BP has to move on from thinking he will carry the team. This team will be led by Heron. He's going to be the leader, not Harper

[PUB78 1,353]

1 hour ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

This is wrong. It's your opinion but it's wrong. At least not my schedule.

We apparently have different expectations of the BB program and BP.

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

51 minutes ago, PUB78 said:

We apparently have different expectations of the BB program and BP.

You are right, and I was frustrated this morning with the team so I apologize that my post was rude to you. Having said that, I do have high expectations for Auburn Basketball, but I didn't expect the program to go from uncompetitive and irrelevant to world-beating, super fundamental dominance in a matter of 3 years. I've seen improvement each year. 1st year was first year and lightning struck in the SEC Tourney. 2nd year had some potential but had everything go wrong for us. Still brought in great recruits and had some good wins that would not have happened in barbee years. This year- most program wins since 2009, 6 true road victories, and an NIT bubble team to close the year. No we are not great, but we are better than we have seen.

[AU64 10,122]

2 hours ago, Hooverwareagle said:

I took my kids to a game in December and no good seats available.  Fortunately, a nice couple gave us a couple of decent tickets and then we bought another at the gate.  You walk in and half the reserved seats are empty!  We sat on second row in someone's empty seats.  I think we have a large majority of boosters that buy season tickets but do not go to the game.  How about selling your tickets if you are not going to go to the games?

I'm guessing that people buy season tickets in order to get good seats for the better games and unless I've missed it, there does not seem to be a widely known "market place" for people to dispose of surplus BB tickets.....and perhaps emand is not great enough (and thus prices) for those ticketholders to go to much trouble to sell their tickets. 

Probably once the tickets are sold, the AD does not worry too much that half the ticketholders do not attend the majority of games. 

You make a good point and somewhere, someone should be working on a scheme to actually put butts in the seats ....and not just trumpet "sold out" while the world sees a half empty arena. Shoot, if the school just gave them to local kids, it would be nice to see more people inside the arena.  

[lionheartkc 6,150]

2 hours ago, AU64 said:

You make a good point and somewhere, someone should be working on a scheme to actually put butts in the seats ....and not just trumpet "sold out" while the world sees a half empty arena. Shoot, if the school just gave them to local kids, it would be nice to see more people inside the arena.  

Good thoughts. In the current, digital world we live in, it would not be hard at all to develop a way for ticket holders to relinquish a seat for a game as a "charity" seat.  It also wouldn't be hard to allow the arena to resell seats that weren't going to be used and give the seat holder a credit.

[PUB78 1,353]

2 hours ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

You are right, and I was frustrated this morning with the team so I apologize that my post was rude to you. Having said that, I do have high expectations for Auburn Basketball, but I didn't expect the program to go from uncompetitive and irrelevant to world-beating, super fundamental dominance in a matter of 3 years. I've seen improvement each year. 1st year was first year and lightning struck in the SEC Tourney. 2nd year had some potential but had everything go wrong for us. Still brought in great recruits and had some good wins that would not have happened in barbee years. This year- most program wins since 2009, 6 true road victories, and an NIT bubble team to close the year. No we are not great, but we are better than we have seen.

You were not rude, so no apology needed. I think we all are frustrated with the BB program. We know better days are coming, we just want them right now!

[GenesChin 9]

18 hours ago, Altima said:

That loss had everything to do with the  immature weenies on the floor.  We shat the bed at the free-throw line, and we were unbelievably lazy on defense.

Those turkeys blew a 7 point lead with under 2 minutes to go.  

Players are gonna have to play...

Coaching can't make free throws for you, and coaching can't make you challenge a shot... period!

-Coaches can force players to shoot Rick Barry style if they suck so bad at the Ft line

-Coaches are responsible for allowing players to play if lazy/lacking energy on defense

-Coaches are responsible for ensuring players are aware of the clock situation and what to do

 

It was a team that lost this game and blew the lead. Players and coaches deserve blame for their contributions to the loss. Both parties definitely made it possible 

[FoundationEagle 637]

22 hours ago, PUB78 said:

Three years and no NIT much less NCAA,. BP is FAILING MISERABLY ON THE COURT

FIFY

I expect that to change next year, but the lack of improvement from game one this year til now is 100 percent on coaching. Heck, I think we are worse today than we were game 1. That's hard to excuse as nothing to do with the coaches.  I lean closer to mainly the coaches fault. 

[au302 2,669]

16 minutes ago, FoundationEagle said:

FIFY

I expect that to change next year, but the lack of improvement from game one this year til now is 100 percent on coaching. Heck, I think we are worse today than we were game 1. That's hard to excuse as nothing to do with the coaches.  I lean closer to mainly the coaches fault. 

I would argue we are better offensively. I mean, we shoot the three better than anyone in the league. We slump when guys start playing selfishly but there's no reason to say we didn't improve offensively. 

Now defensively, we got worse. Some of it was effort and some was coaching. I think at the beginning it was more effort but I do think the staff let us down. Todd Golden and Tony Jones leaving really hurt us. We need to bring a defensive mind on badly. 

[FoundationEagle 637]

9 hours ago, au302 said:

I would argue we are better offensively. I mean, we shoot the three better than anyone in the league. We slump when guys start playing selfishly but there's no reason to say we didn't improve offensively. 

Now defensively, we got worse. Some of it was effort and some was coaching. I think at the beginning it was more effort but I do think the staff let us down. Todd Golden and Tony Jones leaving really hurt us. We need to bring a defensive mind on badly. 

I'd bet we could get Jones back. It may be the difference between average and very good. If I were Bruce I'd be on the phone all month trying to bring him back. Of course I'm not Bruce so who knows what his poa is.