men vs. Kentucky game thread

[AUGoo 2,664]

22 minutes ago, auburn4ever said:

Bruce and his staff needs to start recruiting big and very physical players if he ever wants go up against teams like Kentucky and Duke and have a better chance of beating them. We only have 1 player who's 6-10 or 6-11. We need more in our line up.

Ya' think?!?

[GwillMac6 20,671]

Just now, AUGoo said:

Ya' think?!?

I did not know the legend Auburn4ever even watched basketball till now. I am in for a treat now waiting for his sage advice after every game! lol

[ertrader 197]

Washington? Maybe? Way back on Nov 9? Not sure what they are ranked at this point.

They are the only team I can think of that we beat that will almost definitely be in the tournament. Maybe Murray State?

 

[GwillMac6 20,671]

Just now, ertrader said:

Washington? Maybe? Way back on Nov 9? Not sure what they are ranked at this point.

They are the only team I can think of that we beat that will almost definitely be in the tournament. Maybe Murray State?

 

Florida SHOULD get in now that they won on the road at LSU and beat Ole Miss at home. Depends on how they close though. We have no losses to bad teams but we do not have a impressive resume when it comes to beating good teams. That is why the Miss St game at home is so key. Our best chance left to beat a quad 1 team.

[PoetTiger 1,896]

37 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

So we shot the 3 badly once again and our bigs are not near the same level as UK's, so therefore can't compensate for the poor outside shooting performance. So we can surmise that unless our guards and other 3point shooters catch fire for the remainder of this season , we will barely win enough of our remaining league games to get an 8 seed in the big dance, probably win our  first round game and get embarrassed by the 1 seed in our 2nd round game.  That takes care of 2018. So looking at 18-19' we have 2 new big men coming in and are losing our top scorer in Brown. We better hope both of these big men come onto our team  in beast mode from the get go or next year will be same story different year.

 

Living by the three and dying by the three....seems to have been the formula in the wins and losses.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,666]

This is why I didn’t want to see us against real tournament teams man. We played admirably against LSU, but we just typically look horrible away from AA. Hope we get lucky and somehow only play other small teams if we do make it to March madness 

[ArgoEagle 1,786]

7 minutes ago, PoetTiger said:

Living by the three and dying by the three....seems to have been the formula in the wins and losses.

Yes. My point is we do not need to live and die solely by the three. You look at most of the upper echelon teams. They are able to score inside or outside, such as KY and their big men are dominant inside offensively and on the boards. My point is also if we don't want to continue to be a first round NCAA tournament team, and move towards UK and Duke level, we must get more size and strength inside! Right now we no have it. So right now we are a very good team, but not a great nor elite team.

[PoetTiger 1,896]

3 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

Yes. My point is we do not need to live and die solely by the three. You look at most of the upper echelon teams. They are able to score inside or outside, such as KY and their big men are dominant inside offensively and on the boards. My point is also if we don't want to continue to be a first round NCAA tournament team, and move towards UK and Duke level, we must get more size and strength inside! Right now we no have it. So right now we are a very good team, but not a great nor elite team.

Oh I ageee with you 100%

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, jared52 said:

Gonna be really interesting to see if they can recover from this beat down. Again, it’s like last year’s finish, just falling more and more behind the good teams. 

We didn't fall behind the good teams last year. We won/tied the SEC West, and that is without a true center ni Wiley, and our only defensive presence inside, Anferee out for the year.

Quit comparing this to last year. It's not the same...We have been struggling since SEC opened this year...

[steeleagle 2,945]

8 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

Yes. My point is we do not need to live and die solely by the three. You look at most of the upper echelon teams. They are able to score inside or outside, such as KY and their big men are dominant inside offensively and on the boards. My point is also if we don't want to continue to be a first round NCAA tournament team, and move towards UK and Duke level, we must get more size and strength inside! Right now we no have it. So right now we are a very good team, but not a great nor elite team.

I think Pearl knows this. He should have had Wiley for the last 2 years, but suspension and now injuries have cost him one of his best inside options. I think he tries to recruit strong inside power, but he hasn't had much luck, although we will have a little taller and more powerful recruits coming in this fall. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,666]

Losing on EJ Montgomery REALLY sucked

[jared52 4,354]

1 hour ago, GwillMac6 said:

Washington. Yah we have not won against the quad 1 teams but you are underselling how close we are. We lost on the road to LSU by 5 who has beat UK and rocky top. The only 2 times we look like we have not belonged were today and on the road vs ole miss. The other games we have been right there and so close but did not get over the hump. You have been negative throughout this whole season and act like we are further away than what reality is. We have overachieved honestly this year. Mustapha to Samir is a huge downgrade and so is last years A Mac to this years A Mac. He just is understandably not the same since his horrific injury. We are laboring but hanging in there. We have to shoot really well from 3 to have any sort of chance. We failed miserably at that today. But I expected this kind of outcome on the road at Rupp against a team that is more talented and more athletic and longer at every position. The key game for us down the stretch is Miss ST at home. We HAVE to win that. 

Close and there isn’t really the same. Yeah, I’m pretty bearish about AU’s chances to make the tournament because they don’t match up well with teams down the stretch, but I’ve been far from negative the whole season. Part of me is just tired of every AU team with any level of good expectations falling flat. I didn’t expect the team to make the final four, but I expected to stay i the sweet sixteen discussion. Now it’s fallen to just making the tournament discussion and hope they don’t get beat in round one. 

But I’m far and away happier with AU basketball and don’t miss many games unless they conflict with my kids’ games, but that was mostly true before Pearl came. As an AU student from 95-99, and a mediocre 6A high school basketball player who was too slow to play the 3 and too short with not enough hops to play the 4 in college anywhere, basketball was far more fun for me to attend at AU than football. I’m just dumbfounded at the mental side of the game for Bruce’s teams down the stretch this year and last. Maybe it’s just too taxing to be so undersized, but it seems once teams find out how to stop AU, any good team can do it. 

[ArgoEagle 1,786]

23 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

I think Pearl knows this. He should have had Wiley for the last 2 years, but suspension and now injuries have cost him one of his best inside options. I think he tries to recruit strong inside power, but he hasn't had much luck, although we will have a little taller and more powerful recruits coming in this fall. 

I believe AW can be more of a physical threat. Question is will he be? Are we willing to take that chance? I hope his light comes on, but I'm getting myself an insurance policy with new recruits.

[ArgoEagle 1,786]

35 minutes ago, PoetTiger said:

Oh I ageee with you 100%

I thought you were, just clarified myself.

[GwillMac6 20,671]

11 minutes ago, jared52 said:

Close and there isn’t really the same. Yeah, I’m pretty bearish about AU’s chances to make the tournament because they don’t match up well with teams down the stretch, but I’ve been far from negative the whole season. Part of me is just tired of every AU team with any level of good expectations falling flat. I didn’t expect the team to make the final four, but I expected to stay i the sweet sixteen discussion. Now it’s fallen to just making the tournament discussion and hope they don’t get beat in round one. 

But I’m far and away happier with AU basketball and don’t miss many games unless they conflict with my kids’ games, but that was mostly true before Pearl came. As an AU student from 95-99, and a mediocre 6A high school basketball player who was too slow to play the 3 and too short with not enough hops to play the 4 in college anywhere, basketball was far more fun for me to attend at AU than football. I’m just dumbfounded at the mental side of the game for Bruce’s teams down the stretch this year and last. Maybe it’s just too taxing to be so undersized, but it seems once teams find out how to stop AU, any good team can do it. 

I think it has been pretty clear all season this team is not close to last years team. Heron was a bigger loss than me and everyone else was willing to point out until it became obvious. But it is just not that this team does not have IT that last years team had. That team had unbelievably great chemistry and just meshed perfectly together and it was a beauty to watch. Even when we win big at home when we have something has been off. This team just never did gel and this far in to the season it is obvious they never will. Bruce has squeezed just about everything he can out of this team. This team just does a lot of bad things that good teams do not do. They have way to many turnovers and they take really bad shots. Especially on the road. Plus horrific free throw shooting team. Awful formula. Just making the tourney even with the expectations that we had coming in to this year feels like a win at this point all things considered.

[cole256 17,059]

Disclaimer this is my opinion

 

As far as this season goes on offense the thing that hurts us the most is how unbelievably bad we are at passing. We don't know how to set each other up, we don't know how to run a fast break unless it's a clear 2 on 1, it's really bad. We don't identify a mismatch and we can't see a guy has an advantage unless he's literally wide open. 

We play a very selfish brand of basketball

[GwillMac6 20,671]

1 minute ago, cole256 said:

Disclaimer this is my opinion

 

As far as this season goes on offense the thing that hurts us the most is how unbelievably bad we are at passing. We don't know how to set each other up, we don't know how to run a fast break unless it's a clear 2 on 1, it's really bad. We don't identify a mismatch and we can't see a guy has an advantage unless he's literally wide open. 

We play a very selfish brand of basketball

Def agree with this. A lot of Kyle Kuzma like black hole tunnel vision going on here lol.

[tigers23 648]

Just not a lot of high basketball IQ guys on the floor

[cole256 17,059]

38 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

I think it has been pretty clear all season this team is not close to last years team. Heron was a bigger loss than me and everyone else was willing to point out until it became obvious. But it is just not that this team does not have IT that last years team had. That team had unbelievably great chemistry and just meshed perfectly together and it was a beauty to watch. Even when we win big at home when we have something has been off. This team just never did gel and this far in to the season it is obvious they never will. Bruce has squeezed just about everything he can out of this team. This team just does a lot of bad things that good teams do not do. They have way to many turnovers and they take really bad shots. Especially on the road. Plus horrific free throw shooting team. Awful formula. Just making the tourney even with the expectations that we had coming in to this year feels like a win at this point all things considered.

Not everybody. You had one homie that told the board. I probably took more grief about that call more than anything

[GwillMac6 20,671]

2 minutes ago, cole256 said:

Not everybody. You had one homie that told the board. I probably took more grief about that call more than anything

@Tiger as well.... I just think after the washington we all wanted to believe that no Heron would not be a big deal. WE wanted it so badly to be true. We saw Samir put up 18 points and went WOW ok!!! Its on baby!!! Got really excited and lost in the moment. Thought He can replace heron! Ok lets do this.  We never in our most dark timelines thought he would no show against every other freaking decent team. SMH. We do not have any other player like Heron on our team. Our 2 best players just cannot break down the defense off the dribble like Heron could and we are badly missing it. 

[cole256 17,059]

15 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

@Tiger as well.... I just think after the washington we all wanted to believe that no Heron would not be a big deal. WE wanted it so badly to be true. We saw Samir put up 18 points and went WOW ok!!! Its on baby!!! Got really excited and lost in the moment. Thought He can replace heron! Ok lets do this.  We never in our most dark timelines thought he would no show against every other freaking decent team. SMH. We do not have any other player like Heron on our team. Our 2 best players just cannot break down the defense off the dribble like Heron could and we are badly missing it. 

I had said we have to wait and see and people were like we saw in the tournament and against Washington, but I knew we had so much time to prepare and other teams didn't really know what to expect from us with Herron being gone. But I just saw it setting up to be us when we lost Bryant Smith happening all over again. It's not football and we're not in a place where we could lose a 4 and 5 star and just shrug it off like it's nothing

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,666]

3 hours ago, tigers23 said:

Just not a lot of high basketball IQ guys on the floor

I think I said this quote verbatim 8 games ago (not being an ass by saying that), and it's only been proven more and more as time has progressed. Even Harper has a ton of bad plays...those pull up 3s when you're not hot from the logo when we're down by 5 or so...those are essentially turnovers 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,666]

3 hours ago, GwillMac6 said:

@Tiger as well.... I just think after the washington we all wanted to believe that no Heron would not be a big deal. WE wanted it so badly to be true. We saw Samir put up 18 points and went WOW ok!!! Its on baby!!! Got really excited and lost in the moment. Thought He can replace heron! Ok lets do this.  We never in our most dark timelines thought he would no show against every other freaking decent team. SMH. We do not have any other player like Heron on our team. Our 2 best players just cannot break down the defense off the dribble like Heron could and we are badly missing it. 

Man if Jared has any intention of having any role in the next level, hes gonna have to learn at least one go to dribble move. If he doesnt beat someone with his natural quickness (wouldnt even say speed per se), its just a slightly contested AT BEST three ball

[gr82b4au 5,568]

4 hours ago, cole256 said:

We play a very selfish brand of basketball

Agree 100%. 

[PigskinPat 2,579]

7 hours ago, cole256 said:

Disclaimer this is my opinion

 

As far as this season goes on offense the thing that hurts us the most is how unbelievably bad we are at passing. We don't know how to set each other up, we don't know how to run a fast break unless it's a clear 2 on 1, it's really bad. We don't identify a mismatch and we can't see a guy has an advantage unless he's literally wide open. 

We play a very selfish brand of basketball

I agree 100%. I watched some of the Duke vs Syracuse game earlier and I loved how great they are at ball rotation and it reminded me of how poor we are at it. As others and myself have said before, we play street ball and play like we’re trying to impress our girlfriend up in the stands.