Men vs. Ole Miss game thread

[SCTiger2011 1,277]

I spent the past month rolling my eyes at the dudes saying we wouldn’t make the tournament but I’m not anymore.

Even if I’m generous and say the home advantage lets us get revenge on MSU, there are only 2 more home wins left for this team. 

Vandy and Georgia should be wins on the road, but no gimmes with this team. 

9-9 conference at best. That should get them in but any room for error is gone after tonight 

[GwillMac6 20,671]

 

[GwillMac6 20,671]

7 minutes ago, SCTiger2011 said:

I spent the past month rolling my eyes at the dudes saying we wouldn’t make the tournament but I’m not anymore.

Even if I’m generous and say the home advantage lets us get revenge on MSU, there are only 2 more home wins left for this team. 

Vandy and Georgia should be wins on the road, but no gimmes with this team. 

9-9 conference at best. That should get them in but any room for error is gone after tonight 

Yah Miss St worries me now. I thought for sure this game and Miss st were wins just because they were at home but now I freaking have to worry about Miss St now. I think Miss St is even better than Ole Miss and more explosive to boot.

[AU64 10,122]

43 minutes ago, AUTigersfan89 said:

No, but Harper has pretty much been s*** these last 2 games. He needs to pull his head out of his ass.

Team looking for him to carry the offense....which he is trying to do....just don't have enough scorers....

[AU64 10,122]

28 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

haha come on. I know you are being sarcastic but a 5 star mcdonalds all american going to lsu WHEN HE IS FROM NEW JERSEY!!! Tremont Waters is from New Haven, CT and their other 5 star in last years class Emmitt Williams is from florida so that is not that far fetched. It just  means he is playing the grey area in recruiting very well. Something that will be harder for us to do moving forward because of the person FBI mess. 

We got Heron from Conn. And Spencer from Philly.....coaches just have to get out and do the work. Gonna be small again next year...and younger too it seems.

[AURex 1,994]

When you don't have a strong inside presence, offensively and defensively, you are putting all the pressure on your outside guys. Only Okeke showed up for this game. Even McLemore is shooting more from the outside and is kinda invisible inside.

You can win some games shooting 3s, but if that's all ya got, you ain't got enough.

 

[Randman5000 4,226]

 

 

[Randman5000 4,226]

1 hour ago, The Plainsman said:

#PearlExposed.   He is so out coached it is silly.  

This isn't Pearl, well... Maybe he should get on them for shooting bad three pointers. But we relied way too much on the three last year and the seniors have too much free reign with taking bad shots but Pearl isn't to blame for bad decisions

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

1 hour ago, SCTiger2011 said:

I spent the past month rolling my eyes at the dudes saying we wouldn’t make the tournament but I’m not anymore.

Even if I’m generous and say the home advantage lets us get revenge on MSU, there are only 2 more home wins left for this team. 

Vandy and Georgia should be wins on the road, but no gimmes with this team. 

9-9 conference at best. That should get them in but any room for error is gone after tonight 

I agree. We can only afford losses to @ UK, @Bama, and UT. Any other loss may put us on the wrong side of the bubble. 

[AUTUmike 79]

Geez. I still don't understand the decisions in the last minute--and that's all on Bruce Pearl.

Two other things: 1.) when we're trailing with under 7:00 to play, I'm not crazy about McKlemore chunking up a 3 with the most awkward jump shot in the conference (I'm not down on the guy, that's just not his game); and 2.) Did it seem like we didn't run a single set play all night?

As for the tournament, being projected as a 7-seed before the loss at home tonight means we're very close to the bubble already. Teams from major conferences rarely get seeded below a 9 or 10 because the mid-majors gobble up most of the 11-16 seeds. I still think we make it in, but tonight's loss may force Auburn into a must-win in its first SEC tournament game.

[doverstutts 1,643]

this is a very disappointing season, to say the least....i am used losing football games, and am now numb to it, but i expect to win basketball games,for the most part, these days....JABA i guess

[abw0004 10,110]

@cole256, I was only able to listen to the game on TuneIn as I was driving back from Savannah and it was difficult to understand what was going on due to the crowd noise.  Could you briefly explain what went on that caused us to struggle?  Just a poor game by us, or what?

[AU64 10,122]

8 hours ago, Randman5000 said:

This isn't Pearl, well... Maybe he should get on them for shooting bad three pointers. But we relied way too much on the three last year and the seniors have too much free reign with taking bad shots but Pearl isn't to blame for bad decisions

How can that be?  ...he recruits his players (there are only a dozen) coaches them personally and individually and directs their actions on the floor during the game.  

JMO but a basketball coach probably has more personal control over his program than any coach of any other college sport.     And real coaching ability typically shows up in the last few minutes of a close ball game....in any sport. 

[fishepa 1,902]

Last night's loss IMO was a combination of things we've already seen this year.  I personally don't believe we have much post presence at all.  We have no guys that can back anyone down and score a basket when needed.  McLemore, Spencer, and Wiley just don't have this ability.  Wiley has been especially disappointing to me this year, maybe because of injuries but he just doesn't seem like the center I thought he would become.  The two good scorers we have, Brown and Harper, if they have off nights like last night, it will be extremely difficult for us to win.  Remember than Ole Miss didn't even really score in the first 4 minutes of the game either missing a lot of easy baskets.  Okeke is playing like a man possessed and if he didn't last night we would have lost by quite a bit more.  

Also not sure what's up with Harper, as I said last night he doesn't even look like he is enjoying playing.  Can't remember the last time I saw him smile.  I think we're going to have to make a couple game run in the SEC tourney to make the dance like bammer did last year.  We need to much more consistent and not streaky.  I do believe this team can beat anyone in the country on any given night but the stars would have to align...and defense would have to improve drastically.  

[autigeremt 6,600]

11 hours ago, cole256 said:

I really try to talk about stuff we need to get better at after we win, after a loss people are aggravated. I may make a post in a few days and explain what's going wrong at least from what I see....for whoever may be interested. I imagine some people that may not visit the basketball section a bunch may be confused and wondering what happened I thought we were supposed to be good this year

True. But being right isn’t the only thing worth living for. Jk lol

[AU64 10,122]

Hard to win...period.....shooting 33 % FG and 25% from 3 points.   Took 20 three point shots and only hit 5.....way less than typical.  Brice 1/7 and Harper 1/5...guess that tells the tale. 

Shooting all year has been sub-par......and streaky.  Hard to see that a team which has mostly scored in the range of 80ppg  does not break 60 though OM has to get some credit I guess.

[Tiger 8,822]

We couldn't shoot from 3. Ole Miss hit more last second shots in one game than I can ever remember seeing. We found some offense when the 3 wasn't falling -- CHUMA -- and had a chance at the very end if not for maybe the dumbest play in Jared Harper's career. Inexcusable 3 at the end by him. He's hurt. He's drained of all his energy because McCormick flatly cannot play at this level and our team literally falls apart on both ends when Harper sits and McCormick is running the 1. And Chuma was absolutely carrying us last night. As a PG you have to find Chuma down the stretch. You have to have a better feeling for what's going on out there as the leader. You have to know when tonight is not your night shooting it at such a critical juncture when someone else is feeling it. I'm very disappointed in that. I can excuse the poor play in the first 38 minutes because of all the factors I just mentioned, but down the stretch having such lack of awareness is just unacceptable from a veteran leader.

[Harp_AU2013 221]

just hard to watch.. still struggling with Harper's inconsistency... Maybe he needs to sit a few games and heal up... and if we played that game 100 times, only one would result in Ole Miss hitting 7 last second 3s

[LKEEL75 2,566]

I am by no means a basketball expert, but the number of times that we drive down the court and take a horrible shot from behind the arc with 20 seconds left on the clock....  

 

It is like we go fast just to see fast we can throw up a 3 pointer.  Work the ball around the floor some.  

[Tiger 8,822]

One thing to consider: At the time that we signed everyone on the roster the AU program was not in a good place. There was nothing tangible of note to show these kids. The level of players we are going to be bringing will be better. Meaning we won't have to "settle" for a 5'8 PG. Or a 3* 6'2 SG. At the time we weren't at a place where Bruce could be picky with the talent he was bringing in. Now this incoming class has way more size/length at positions 1-3 which is exactly where our problems start, even if the lack of front court size is what looks most obvious to everyone. The following classes will most likely keep with this trend. Turbo Jones is not a "tall" PG but he's at least going to be average size at 6'1. That's going to be good progress for us.

BTW Bruce has squeezed every ounce of talent out of Bryce Brown. He got him to flip from UNC-Charlotte. He's achieved above and beyond what we could've expected. Harper is about as good as you'll find at 5'8 but there are things he simply can't do because he wasn't blessed with typical size. Anfernee had only Ivy League offers and working back from injury. This team was supposed to be anchored by 2 obvious talent's (5 stars) in Heron and Wiley. One left and one is and has been hurt. Chuma is a clear cut talent but has not asserted himself enough to mitigate Harper and Brown's shortcomings in the way Mustapha did -- although last night could hopefully be a sign of things to come. If he can do that type of work in conjunction with Harper and Brown hitting shots that will be huuuuge.

I urge everyone to watch at least a few full games from the Barbee era. It'll give some perspective to those who need it.

[tigeraddikt 1,603]

9 hours ago, abw0004 said:

@cole256, I was only able to listen to the game on TuneIn as I was driving back from Savannah and it was difficult to understand what was going on due to the crowd noise.  Could you briefly explain what went on that caused us to struggle?  Just a poor game by us, or what?

I'm not the poster you asked for, but here is what I saw:

Kermit Davis combined the tools of film study and coaching intelligence to devise a game plan for his Ole Miss team to limit Auburn possessions, prevent AU from developing any runs (with frequent and quick-trigger timeouts), and rely on slow, old-school half-court "sets" (if you want to call them that) to milk the play clock to nothing, hoping at the end of the possession clock that his players could either hit last-second jumpers (mostly from 3) or get fouled. That's exactly what happened the entire game. Even with their best player Terrence whoever in foul trouble most of the game, other players just milked clock and hit 3's with 1 or 2 seconds left on the shot clock. Over and over. Like 8 or more times. I imagine the stars align on that kind of game plan to actually work maybe 1 in 1000 times, literally. It should not have and would not have worked, except:

-OM played a 2-3 zone (I think) that just denied Brown from getting any decent kind of looks from 3 all game long.

-Harper had probably his worst basketball game since he was, well, probably just his worst game ever. He sank a few free throws and hit 1 or 2 3's, but he bricked tons of shots and had so many more turnovers than we are used to him having. He was, unusually enough, a huge liability in this game, and our offense depends on him to not play terribly.

-Got basically no net positive production from anyone not named Chuma Okeke. When Horace Brown has AU's 2nd most impressive game effort, that ain't good.

-Ole Miss's execution of their AISA private-school game plan really got into AU's head (well, everybody except Chuma, who had a career night), and the team, as a whole, couldn't get over the hump. The planets/stars/whatever aligned for OM to beat AU the way they did, and beat them they did.

On a different note, are you sure that was crowd noise you were hearing? Because watching it on tv, there sure wasn't much for the crowd to cheer about for most of the game.

[The Plainsman 948]

18 hours ago, Randman5000 said:

This isn't Pearl, well... Maybe he should get on them for shooting bad three pointers. But we relied way too much on the three last year and the seniors have too much free reign with taking bad shots but Pearl isn't to blame for bad decisions

I think the lack of true offensive plays, creates that scenario though.  Pearl let’s his guys create,  which is good when it is working,  but against good defensive players,  we need to be creative from a scheme standpoint too.  

I love Pearl and what he has brought to AU,  but we get exposed consistently now vs equal or better talent. 

[abw0004 10,110]

12 hours ago, tigeraddikt said:

On a different note, are you sure that was crowd noise you were hearing? Because watching it on tv, there sure wasn't much for the crowd to cheer about for most of the game.

IT must have been because Rod was right behind the student section and their mics may not have been top quality.  That and I was listening through my phone speakers.  

[cole256 17,050]

23 hours ago, abw0004 said:

@cole256, I was only able to listen to the game on TuneIn as I was driving back from Savannah and it was difficult to understand what was going on due to the crowd noise.  Could you briefly explain what went on that caused us to struggle?  Just a poor game by us, or what?

This sort of sound bad as far as being technical about the game of basketball in general but we really lost to miss because we couldn't shoot. I say it but people ignore it and want it to be something else.....we didn't have the talent on the team to make up for the losses. We aren't the type of program that can keep replacing people when they leave. Our guards were never best in the country types. They aren't alpha carry the team on my shoulder types. Herron was, I don't know about the entire fan base but I think it is, but certainly this board didn't appreciate him. It goes with a post I made on the football side. We don't like big time recruits, so when he left it was oh well.....but tried to make Brown and Harper the real all stars....no those guys are complementary types. They need one maybe two jobs to do and just focus on that.....when they are the focus of a gameplan that's it....usually they're shut down. 

They've only been able to get better offensively by a little. They are better at being the guys benefiting from somebody else getting doubled. They can't see over defenders to make the passes in traffic, they can't shoot over guys or are great at creating their own shot. Both their scoring averages are improved by a couple of points, they actually never were great shooters, and the percentages aren't that much better. On top of that we had Wiley get injured and DP coming late. I'm sure while he was playing you saw people talking ill of Wiley and when he got hurt we lost 3 close games....bet everybody wish we had those 3 games in the win column now though.....

We're basically a team that relies on jump shooters, and our shooters are streaky and not the best shooters......we could be good if we really played together but if you look at the numbers our last few games you'll see we don't really have high assist totals. We're really a good scorer away from being a great team. If we had a good scoring guard that could handle the ball a bit we'd be a completely different team.

Lastly we miss Mitchell bad as well. PG is the most important position on the floor and we don't have a back up....I don't know how people figured that he wouldn't be missed, on top of that he was our best defender.

So you have a team that's close, that was hyped pretty good. A fan base that's all goody goody so when you see signs of cracks in the armor they do the people can't enjoy a good team thing. Several losses they are so what the heck is going on panic mode after the fact so now you have the reactions you see. We're not dumpster fire suck and we're not final four good. I had to argue with a dude that was comparing Harper to Steph curry for goodness sakes......so you can see what I mean as far as unreal expectations.

That's actually what we need right now. If we had a college Steph curry added on this team right now we'd be the team many thought we were the beginning of the season.

Oh and Mississippi is a small team like us so we didn't have the mismatches offensively. Except for chumma, so they were just playing us tight switching everything and we didn't have any advantages to exploit from that.