AU fans Boo Ref Who Missed Double Dribble vs. UVA

[aubiefifty 16,778]

Boos for an old Auburn friend at Mike Slive Invitational

Updated Dec 15, 2019;Posted Dec 14, 2019

6-7 minutes

Auburn Basketball

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 25: J'Von McCormick #5 of the Auburn Tigers looks to pass during the first half against the New Mexico Lobos at Barclays Center on November 25, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

It felt like an NCAA Tournament game for Auburn and Bruce Pearl, and not just because the Tigers had a Final Four reunion with an old friend.

Referee Doug Sirmons, who was on the court for Auburn’s notorious loss to Virginia, worked the Mike Slive Invitational at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena on Saturday night. By the sound of the sizable crowd (12,614), Auburn fans still aren’t over how that game in Minneapolis ended.

There were boos in Birmingham.

Lots of boos.

Auburn fans gave Doug the business, and Saint Louis gave No.12 Auburn more trouble than perhaps anyone was expecting.

The Billikens slowed it down and made it ugly just like Virginia in Minneapolis, but this time a missed call at midcourt didn’t cost Auburn the game.

Auburn shot just 35 percent from the field (and, amazingly, 46.4 percent from the foul line), but still won 67-61.

Bad teams without experience lose those types of games. Good teams win ugly and then get on a bus, drive back to Auburn, pop on the lights in the arena and practice free throws. Auburn was 13 of 28 from the line.

“The key to free-throw shooting is getting them,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.

Yeah, but making them in the second half of a physical conference game is going to be important here in a couple weeks. Auburn begins its SEC schedule on Jan. 4 at Mississippi State.

The book on Auburn right now is foul first, and then also foul later.

“It’s not a good trend, but I believe we can turn it around,” Pearl said.

There will be more ugly games. Will there be uglier games? Please, no. The basketball purest in me can’t bare to gaze in stunned and stupid horror upon another stat sheet that reads 46.4 percent from the free-throw line.

Crotchety rant over.

Auburn (9-0) is still figuring some things out here in mid-December, but there is a lot to like about this team that lost so much following that magical run to glory in the NCAA Tournament.

I still get all warm inside thinking about how that team closed out North Carolina after Chuma Okeke went down. Watching Tyler Herro become a rookie star this season in the NBA puts into even better perspective what Auburn’s dynamic duo of Jared Harper and Bryce Brown did to Kentucky in the Elite Eight.

Those memories have created something special for Auburn basketball, and that has been on display to begin this season. Basketball matters right now for the Tigers, and people are still hanging Christmas lights.

That’s still a relatively new and wonderful reality for a team that had been dormant and irrelevant for so long.

This team lost Harper and Brown, but J’Von McCormick has moved from reserve to backcourt standout with ease. That’s the mark of an excellent coach who has built a strong program. McCormick averaged 12.2 minutes and 4.1 points per game as a junior. Now he’s a senior leader just like Harper before him. In a sluggish and physical battle against Saint Louis, McCormick led Auburn with 20 points and six assists.

He was the difference in the game.

McCormick said he wanted his identity this season to be a continuation of Harper’s leadership. Pearl trusted that McCormick could handle the task, and so far he is proving his coach correct.

“Knowing that Jared left, people thought it was going to be a drop off,” McCormick said. “I just wanted to show that it’s not a drop off when he leaves.”

Auburn might take a few steps back this season, but they’ve already proven in their first nine games that what happened in March was no fluke. This is an excellent program that Pearl has built from the ground up.

Samir Doughty, a competitor by nature, is the heart of the team right now, and it’s deep enough to have players like senior Anfernee McLemore come off the bench. Newcomer Isaac Okoro (12 points) is going to be fun to watch, and his presence off the ball was impressive against Saint Louis. He started ice cold from the floor, but hustle points helped him find a rhythm. That’s a tough skill to teach a player.

Auburn had a poor night shooting overall, but was 6 of 12 from three-point range in the second half. Defensive havoc created offensive spurts, which is what Pearl’s teams are designed to do. Saint Louis started the game 0-10 from three-point range and finished 3 of 18. Saint Louis (8-2) is young, but tough. Don’t be surprised to see the Bills in the NCAA Tournament this season.

Other than free throws (OK, I’ll stop), the Mike Slive Invitational was excellent again this year, but it would have been nice to see a rematch between Auburn and UAB.

It was odd having Auburn and UAB playing basketball in Birmingham on the same day, but not playing against each other. While Auburn was having fun in Uptown, the Blazers hosted Montevallo on the Southside.

We all know that Alabama will never play UAB in basketball, but whatever needs to happen for UAB and Auburn to play each year in the Mike Slive Invitational should be worked out immediately. Slive, who passed away from prostate cancer, was the commissioner of the SEC and Conference USA. He always said he was a huge fan of the Blazers, and UAB helped get the Mike Slive Foundation for Prostate Cancer Research off the ground.

Prostate cancer screening was available in the concourse during the Mike Slive Invitational, and Pearl reported after the game that 63 people were checked out by the Urology Centers of Alabama. One in nine men, according to current statistics, are diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“You get to be 40 years old, you gotta get a colonoscopy,” Pearl said. “We lost Mike Slive too soon. When he found out he had prostate cancer it was stage four.”

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

Legit cost us a National Championship.  

[AU70 23]

Totally agree with the previous post. He makes the right call we would have won the title. No excuse. He was looking right at it. 

[fishepa 1,904]

20 hours ago, dyehardfanAU said:

Legit cost us a National Championship.  

Yup.  We would have beaten Texas Tech.  Team was rolling.

[saminbama 740]

I was watching the game Saturday and missed the first couple of minutes.  I kept hearing boos and couldn't understand why.  This explains it.  Thanks for the info and I agree 100%.  He cost us the NC.

[Maverick.AU 13,279]

2 hours ago, fishepa said:

Yup.  We would have beaten Texas Tech.  Team was rolling.

And the part that eats at me to this day is that I don’t think you will ever see a more deserving group of guys that rose up from the ashes and gave AU everything they had and helped raise the program to this level. I still hurt for them Bc they deserved every bit of that success

[jared52 4,354]

I was at the game and I only recall boos for the refs in the second half when they went brain dead for about 3-4 minutes. This is a hack at al dot come drumming up drama to talk about AU losing to Virginia again. Goodman is a uat tool.