First 7-1 Start

[keesler 5,923]

On 12/11/2017 at 12:18 AM, mustache eagle said:

Ability to pay it back?

Interesting.

JMHO - Momma had her hand out once and put her kid's future in jeopardy,  she can take out a loan to pay it back to get her kid back on track for a possible pro career.

 

[gravejd 3,267]

I've been really pleased with how this team has come together and been playing. That last win against UAB without Heron was a testament to the quality we now have on this team. We are no longer relying on 1 or 2 individuals to carry us. It seems like all the players have a role and are embracing that role. We are playing better defense and rebounding is night and day from a year ago. The combo of Murray, McLemore, and Dunbar absolutely get after it on the boards. Here is a breakdown of what i've seen out of each player...good and bad. 

Harper - True PG now. I'm curious if he can keep up this level of play when we get to SEC and opposing guards get bigger. He hit a wall last year in SEC play and seemed to run out of gas. But Harper looks stronger, is shooting free throws better, and seems to want to pass first and score second. 

Brown - this guy is a threat to score at any moment. Lights out shooter. He is playing very good defense. Still puts up some bad shots and has turnover problems when trying to score off the dribble. But he is getting better in both those areas. Hope he can avoid that awful shooting slump that hit him last season. Crazy that a guy that can shoot like he does could have such an extended slump shooting the ball. 

Heron - get better soon Heron. Go to guy when we need a basket. He really does it all for this team on the offensive side of the floor. He didn't play in the UAB game so i haven't seen him as much and as such hard to comment on his D and rebounding. We'll have a tough time being successful in the SEC if he doesn't get better soon. 

McLemore - i could go on and on and on about McLemore. He is my favorite player on the team. Absolute beast on the boards and getting blocks. Offensive game is coming along well. His ability to limit post players and his offensive game will likely suffer when we go against bigger lineups. But this guy is a glue guy. Plays hard always, plays smart always, basically does everything you want a bball player to do and he does none of the bad stuff. He blocks a shot and gets ready to play the next possession. He gets the rebounds kicks it to the guard and flies down the court. Doesn't talk to the refs just plays the game. Like i said i could go on forever about this kid. 

Murray - Very similar to McLemore in every aspect of his game. A little smaller and a little better with the ball and his outside shot. 

Dunbar - starting to find his role on the team. Dirty work kind of guy. Hangs out around the basket to clean up offensive rebounds. Offense has been limited so far but we'll see how that does going forward. Felt like he had a bit of coming out game against UAB

Spencer - man not seeing a lot out of Spencer tbh. Very athletic but doesn't play very smart IMO and as a result hasn't been very productive this year. Hoping he comes along. 

Mitchel - welcome to college.....still finding his way. I like how Pearl is playing him lots of minutes with Harper out there. 

Okeke - this guy has skills. Okeke > Purifoy. Can score and has really good size. Looks way thicker than your normal freshmen. I think he'll be challenging Heron as #1 player by end of season. You don't get named Mr bball in Georgia for nothing. 

[mustache eagle 2,388]

solid post. agree with pretty much all of it.  thats a bold statement about okeke!  I'm assuming he will hit a wall during sec play like the freshman did last year.  i'm hopeful harper can sustain through the year.  according to game announcers (primarily the auburn crews) we have played some very well thought of guards during the OOC schedule.  i, of course, have absolutely no idea if that is true.

i was really hoping spencer's foul troubles would subside and the glimpses of an offensive game would become more consistent.  really hope we can get wiley back.  

the team that has been on the floor this year has been refreshing.  i'm worried we will miss players like chubb, devin waddell, and josh wallace (I had to look up wallace).  not necessarily talented compared to others, but always played hard and smart.  10th, 11th, 12th man type of guys who gave a few minutes a game during real game time and made a difference.  seems like waddell induced a couple of charges every game.  I don't think we have that type of player on this team.  Then again if we get AW and DP back, we wont need that type of guy.  Guess I miss having that type of guy who makes a difference. 

[AUGoo 2,659]

I'm liking the hustle aspect of this team.  The D seems to me to be a little tighter this year and they appear to be pressing more than last year.  Despite not having two starters on the floor, I think our quality of depth off the bench is way improved allowing our guys breather time.

I believe I have never seen an Auburn team shoot FTs this well. 77 % from the line! If/when Wiley comes back, it will be interesting to see if that continues.

[doc4aday 1,887]

are we OK with Coach Pearl now? It seems like the storm has passed and maybe things are on the bright side now for the coach and the team.

[AlaskanFAN 1,665]

10-1, unbelievable start! Sometimes a little adversity can send a team in right or wrong direction. We seem to be working as a collective and trending the right rather than the wrong.

[gravejd 3,267]

On 12/16/2017 at 5:10 PM, doc4aday said:

are we OK with Coach Pearl now? It seems like the storm has passed and maybe things are on the bright side now for the coach and the team.

don't think anyone can say for sure. but he is certainly making it hard on the admin to get rid of him unless he actually did something wrong here (as opposed to just being in charge when others did wrong)

Congrats to the team on sticking together and getting off to this great start! Keep playing hard boys!!

[cole256 17,039]

On 12/7/2017 at 4:24 PM, lionheartkc said:

I want to know what @cole256 thinks. He seems to see the intangibles better than most. He literally called what was going to be our Achilles heel. last year, before anyone else recognized it.

Sorry been a long time. Since moving to Illinois I don't have the luxury of watching the team that much so I'm not going to say a bunch of cliches and pretend I'm actually coming up with something.

Before the season started I called that we would be much better on defense though. As soon as I saw we signed Okeke. Then when people would go crazy about us signing Mitchell I said the thing he's going to come help us the most is defense early. I'm not surprised at all about that. And from that Spencer being able to do what he does and so on and so on.....remember his name but I felt he was too small to play the position he'd been playing and didn't see the athleticism or skill set to move to the perimeter but if I'm not mistaken he did just that. And you have to admit when you're wrong if you're going to talk about when you're right imo. 

So going from my theory last year I felt that Brown and Harper would play better because they wouldn't get dominated defensively as much and with our extra length we would be able to play alot of zone because in the past at UT that's what BP liked to do. Get long guards and forwards and cover alot of ground. Now I haven't really watched us play but from looking at stats that's what it looklike may have happened.  I also said we'd rebound better because we'd finally have the mismatches for us instead of against us...

 

And if so let's remember Cole called all of this in March of last year just by seeing tape of our new guys. If that's not what happened then I'm going to blame it on bird or something like that LOL. 

 

I think I was wrong about one guy. Can't 

[AU64 10,122]

1 hour ago, cole256 said:

Sorry been a long time. Since moving to Illinois I don't have the luxury of watching the team that much so I'm not going to say a bunch of cliches and pretend I'm actually coming up with something.

Before the season started I called that we would be much better on defense though. As soon as I saw we signed Okeke. Then when people would go crazy about us signing Mitchell I said the thing he's going to come help us the most is defense early. I'm not surprised at all about that. And from that Spencer being able to do what he does and so on and so on.....remember his name but I felt he was too small to play the position he'd been playing and didn't see the athleticism or skill set to move to the perimeter but if I'm not mistaken he did just that. And you have to admit when you're wrong if you're going to talk about when you're right imo. 

So going from my theory last year I felt that Brown and Harper would play better because they wouldn't get dominated defensively as much and with our extra length we would be able to play alot of zone because in the past at UT that's what BP liked to do. Get long guards and forwards and cover alot of ground. Now I haven't really watched us play but from looking at stats that's what it looklike may have happened.  I also said we'd rebound better because we'd finally have the mismatches for us instead of against us...

 

And if so let's remember Cole called all of this in March of last year just by seeing tape of our new guys. If that's not what happened then I'm going to blame it on bird or something like that LOL. 

 

I think I was wrong about one guy. Can't 

Good to hear from you.

Hope you can catch them by streaming or something this year ....been fun to watch .   Defense has been a nice surprise to me....especially Brown who has played well at both ends and a big step up from last season.   And some of the new guys have a little beef on them and are willing to use it. 

Merry Christmas....

[cole256 17,039]

Oh I was pretty hard on Brown last year too. Didn't like the way he played last year, he was very predictable. Wouldn't have been hard to take him out of a game at all, so if he's playing well this year I need to be the first to give him kudos on that for sure

[cole256 17,039]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Good to hear from you.

Hope you can catch them by streaming or something this year ....been fun to watch .   Defense has been a nice surprise to me....especially Brown who has played well at both ends and a big step up from last season.   And some of the new guys have a little beef on them and are willing to use it. 

Merry Christmas....

Merry Christmas to you too! And yeah I'll figure something out I'm sure. When I do have time I watch my cousin play, they are having a surprise season as well. Great stuff this year