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A warning about SEC Play


tigerbrotha12

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On 1/7/2019 at 1:50 PM, tigerbrotha12 said:

I don't believe we are going to "look" like we are as good of a team as last season, even though I do believe this team could beat last year's team. Almost every team in the SEC has at least a very decent squad capable of winning a game or two in the NCAA tournament. The average team in the SEC went about 9-3 in the non conference this season. That is really good when your conference is playing in Maui, playing Kansas and Gonzaga, Duke twice, Arizona State, NC State, Florida State, and on and on....

 

The worst non conference record in our league was achieved by South Carolina at 5-7, and that team just went to Gainesville and beat Florida, a team that went 8-4. Texas A&M went 6-5 in the non-conference, and just about beat Arkansas, a team that went 9-3 and could very well make the NCAA tournament. Ole Miss could be a threat this season as well. They went into Nashville and beat a really good Vandy team- one that handled Arizona State about a month ago by 15. Of course, Alabama also knocked off #13 Kentucky over the weekend as well. 

 

I don't say this for gloom and doom purposes, I say this as a caution to the pessimists on the board- the league is insanely competitive this year. We will win some games that we should be underdogs in, and we will probably lose a few games that we should be favorites in. The moral of the story is don't get in an uproar if we lose a game we "should've won." Tennessee may be the only team that can really expected to be the favorite in most every one of their games. We are probably just as good as Tennessee, but we haven't quite found it yet. Be patient with this Auburn team, and remember that this is an incredibly challenging league this season. There are really only 2 teams that we can really feel comfortable that we will beat pretty easily. We will be favored in most of the rest, but we will lose some. The SEC is going to get a ton of teams in the tournament this year, methinks, and if we don't go 14-4, that does not mean we have regressed. 

We have built a program up to a level of relevance. Yes, the next step is playing for championships, but even the established champions are being tested in the SEC this season. Don't jump off the plane at the first sign of turbulence.

 

War Eagle.

 

Good talk dad.gif

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Tennessee hammering Missouri at Mizz...up by 20 now... Rick has really done a turnaround there...

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6 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Tennessee hammering Missouri at Mizz...up by 20 now... Rick has really done a turnaround there...

Dang also beat uga by 40 or 50 at UT

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On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2019 at 5:59 PM, doverstutts said:

that worries me....ole miss is pretty good

agreed its basically the first game of the season. I'm sure Bruce has done a good job of keeping them sharp but this game could still be a struggle.

May go down to the last few possessions.

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I've tempered my expectations for this team. I just havent seen it come together to this point like I expected. There's plenty of time left for that to happen, but I haven't seen that dominant team I expected. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe being too critical, but I am in wait and see mode with this team still. A disappointing season would not surprise me at this point.

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14 minutes ago, boisnumber1 said:

I've tempered my expectations for this team. I just havent seen it come together to this point like I expected. There's plenty of time left for that to happen, but I haven't seen that dominant team I expected. Maybe my expectations were too high, maybe being too critical, but I am in wait and see mode with this team still. A disappointing season would not surprise me at this point.

Somewhat agree …..more than a third of the season passed and still hard to know what to make of the team other than Harper.  

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This team is doing right about what I thought they would. I predicted we should be peaking around the end of the season going into post season. Everything else so far I thought. Adjusting to new roles, inconsistency on offense, missing a couple of guys, gaining confidence as we go. 

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23 minutes ago, cole256 said:

This team is doing right about what I thought they would. I predicted we should be peaking around the end of the season going into post season. Everything else so far I thought. Adjusting to new roles, inconsistency on offense, missing a couple of guys, gaining confidence as we go. 

I hope you are right. I thought we would look  better by middle of December.  The UAB and NC State game bothered me as we still had no identity. D has been pretty good which means the effort is there.  I think my reasons for thinking we would be better than we are now is I was expecting Chuma to show same type of growth in second year that other players under Bruce showed.  I see so much potential in him that either because he isn't assertive enough or Brown and Harper are not looking for him enough that we are to reliant on throwing up a lot of threes and hoping we are hot. 

With Wiley we have the potential for a down low game but if Chuma were to step up we would have the player who can shoot the three, Drive to the basket, and find the open man. 

The other thing I see missing and that goes for most college teams is the ability to hit pull up jumpers, it is so effective but is becoming a lost art. A guy who is driving has defender back pedaling then pulls up for a mid range jumper to far away for the shot blockers is very difficult to stop and is a high percentage shot.

A couple of the Tenn players have the pull up jumper in their arsenal of Offensive weapons.

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team is ahead of my expectation in terms of W/L record. Its hard to compare to last season because i don't think it was until we got to SEC play last year that i started to realize just how good that team was going to be. We have a couple of wins that were closer then they should be such as UAB, Xavier, and Murray ST. But with that our loses to Duke and NC State were both under 10 points. We played terrible against NC State and was still able to keep it close. I think that says something to what this team can be. I don't know that we will reach our full potential but i certainly haven't seen anything to say we can't. Going into the season i was expecting about a 6 or better seed in the tourney and i think we are on pace to achieve that. Just have to see how we do now that SEC play starts. And i for one will not be crying myself to sleep or adjusting those expectations should we drop one on the road tonight  after 19 days off. 

Also for perspective. Our current starting line up contains 2 players that were starting for us this time last season. This is still a team trying to figure everything out. If you folks were expecting this team to run the table or be lights out from the starting point then you were expecting too much

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It's a long season and we have plenty to be concerned with.  This team should go into this game tonight knowing if they do not play at a high level they can be beaten.  It has already happened to KY AND MS STATE.  The good thing for us is that is one in the loss column for them already.  Meanwhile Tennessee is attempting to the be the Alpha Male of the conference....  We need to understand to win the SEC we are going to have go through the WHOLE conference-- Night in and out....

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Huh?

The pessimists don't need to be cautioned, because the expect to lose some games along the way.

It's the sunshine pumpers blinded by their inflated expectations who need to be cautioned.

 

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19 minutes ago, AURex said:

Huh?

The pessimists don't need to be cautioned, because the expect to lose some games along the way.

It's the sunshine pumpers blinded by their inflated expectations who need to be cautioned.

You missed the whole point of the OP.  Either that or just looking to find a way to take a shot at the "sunshine pumpers."  The point is if we do not meet the expectations of the pre-season, to not jump to conclusions and berate the team.  Pessimistic people (in life) have a tendency to do this.  It is a precaution thread to enjoy the team for what it is this season, win or lose.  Not to hold them up to (at times) unrealistic expectations.  To be level-headed.  That we are still on an upward trajectory.  A good way to approach it is like Cole has been I think.

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On 1/8/2019 at 8:13 AM, lost said:

I want to see Wiley with 20 plus a night

If our Center is averaging that much from here out, we will lose most games. It hasn't been a Center's world since Shaq dominated. Unless your name is Anthony Davis, who can hit from anywhere. Every team, College and Pro, are excelling/advancing each season from the arc. It's only going to continue in that direction.

20 plus every now and then when our threes aren't falling (typically on the road) to bail us out in tight games? Absolutely. But no way a seasons average from here out.

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Just now, Scotty2Hotty said:

If our Center is averaging that much from here out, we will lose most games. It hasn't been a Center's world since Shaq dominated. Unless your name is Anthony Davis, who can hit from anywhere. Every team, College and Pro, are excelling/advancing each season from the arc. It's only going to continue in that direction.

20 plus every now and then when our threes aren't falling (typically on the road) to bail us out in tight games? Absolutely. But no way a seasons average from here out.

I can understand your reasoning.  Maybe a double double would be nice....   :-)

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1 minute ago, lost said:

I can understand your reasoning.  Maybe a double double would be nice....   🙂

Absolutely agreed. If Wiley is averaging a double double, we won't lose much.

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2 minutes ago, jared52 said:

Gonna have to read through this thread over and over to get over that beat down. Awful. 

Yep. Just remember, this is gonna be kind of normal. We’re gonna get everyone’s best on the road. Protect home court, win a road game or two, and go 11-7 or so in the league. That’ll be plenty good enough. Patience. Next two games should be good for getting us back on track. 

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1 hour ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

Yep. Just remember, this is gonna be kind of normal. We’re gonna get everyone’s best on the road. Protect home court, win a road game or two, and go 11-7 or so in the league. That’ll be plenty good enough. Patience. Next two games should be good for getting us back on track. 

This wasn't their best though....their leading scorer and best shooter hit one shot. We could learn alot from them. They adjusted. We're just not as good as we were thinking we were

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9 hours ago, cole256 said:

This wasn't their best though....their leading scorer and best shooter hit one shot. We could learn alot from them. They adjusted. We're just not as good as we were thinking we were 

Yep, I'm starting to realize this. There's talent but AU had something special last year that has been totally missing this year. Maybe they believed they were better than they really are. There's time to improve and I think Pearl can lead them to do it.

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1 hour ago, jared52 said:

Yep, I'm starting to realize this. There's talent but AU had something special last year that has been totally missing this year. Maybe they believed they were better than they really are. There's time to improve and I think Pearl can lead them to do it.

The guys that left our program brought very unique things to the table that we have not been able to replace. DeSean was tough as nails. Davion was a dog on the defensive perimeter. Heron was a walking bucket and forced the issue when things got bogged down - - in a good way. He drove and attacked the rim leading to FTs or points. We reaaaallllyy miss him especially because every team now is going to force us to play a slow down game in the half court where we are atrocious. 

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13 hours ago, cole256 said:

This wasn't their best though....their leading scorer and best shooter hit one shot. We could learn alot from them. They adjusted. We're just not as good as we were thinking we were

Yes but their secondary players went off. This is what I mean by their best game in that everyone is going to be fired up on the other team to play us, not just the stars

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17 minutes ago, tigerbrotha12 said:

Yes but their secondary players went off. This is what I mean by their best game in that everyone is going to be fired up on the other team to play us, not just the stars

I don't think anybody for them went off.  Maybe one bench guy, but I don't think teams look at us like that. I think they really question if we are that good or not. Especially guards, we're not scary or physically imposing. People look and think they might be able to score but they can't stop me from scoring either. 

We have a bunch of stuff that still needs to be earned, mostly respect. I think the guys on our team are overlooking the other team. I feel our trouble is self inflicted, I don't think we're getting unbelievable effort from every team we play, at least no more than they give anybody else. We don't play with any fire or grit right now

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Nope ... all 3 of the guys that left brought those intangibles.  Spencer has it but not the b-ball skills.  Dunbar has it but a few intermittent bone head plays come with it ... although last night everyone had bone head moments and including our assistant coach.

the one guy who should show it - wiley - isn’t.  AMac was neutralized last night.  His few oops were clearly read by ole miss.  We had a weak game.  More grit would have meant more second chances for us and less for them and More FT for us.  I recall most drives last night were cut off or kicked out other than the awesome single drive from Chuma.  

Wiley getting stuffed at the rim ain’t first rounder type stuff.  He’s gotta break their hand inide the rim.  We m talking angry with authority.  They’ll all bounce back but Wiley didn’t increase his draft stock last night.

Ive said this numerous times.  Throw DP out there with a couple designed plays driving to the basket.  Put that 6’7” 235 pound body to work.  If he’s exhausted afterwards then pull him.

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1 hour ago, cole256 said:

I don't think anybody for them went off.  Maybe one bench guy, but I don't think teams look at us like that. I think they really question if we are that good or not. Especially guards, we're not scary or physically imposing. People look and think they might be able to score but they can't stop me from scoring either. 

We have a bunch of stuff that still needs to be earned, mostly respect. I think the guys on our team are overlooking the other team. I feel our trouble is self inflicted, I don't think we're getting unbelievable effort from every team we play, at least no more than they give anybody else. We don't play with any fire or grit right now

Davis had 27 pts, 12 rebs

 

Buffen had 16 pts, 4 rebs, 3 steals

 

Shuler had 14 pts

 

I think we were able to stop Tyree pretty well but a lot of his supporting cast had pretty big games scoring wise. 

I agree that a lot of our trouble is self-inflicted. When we get down, we don't have much trouble coming back to even up the score, but then its like we start to relax again because we think we've got it. Good thing is I think that can be brought out of a team over the course of a season. Ours in not a talent issue, it seems like we have some scheme confusion as well as a little pride that we needed knocked down a bit. I'm hoping to see us play like the underdog we were last season again. 

 

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