Men vs Texas A&M Game Thread

[AuburnNTexas 7,128]

When other teams go to zone this team settles for long 3's. Okoro should be at the top of the key getting the ball there gives him a better option to get ball down low to Wiley to drive and pull up for 15 foot shot or to hit somebody who cuts when he starts to drive. The problem is that we seldom cut when he starts to drive  so he gets double teamed. Multiple times last night I saw Wiley set a high Pick than roll to the basket where he was open but only once did the guard pass it to him and he got a dunk. When he sets picks for either J'Von or Samir the guards are only thinking about driving and are not even looking at him when he rolls to the basket. The guard can't drive because Wiley's man double teams the guard.  

Texas A&M is not a good offensive team but they looked good last night because of how many easy baskets they got on turnovers. We tend to wait to long to start our Offense, we make long passes around the perimeter, and our Guards dribble to much.  This has not changed all year. One reason he have looked so bad at end of season is teams have figured us out.

I love the teams effort but effort alone won't win a lot of games as we are starting to see.

 

[weagl1 1,781]

 Bruce has brought the program a long way but this particular team is as baffling and frustrating as any team we have ever had.  Like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates you never know what you are going to get.  Just when you think they are going to take a step forward they fall flat on their face.  

[abw0004 10,107]

I just do not understand why Bruce has not told his team to stop shooting three's, or to say only certain players can shoot threes.  These dumb 3-point shots are the reason we lost the ones we did.

[GwillMac6 20,607]

After re watching the second half this morning I am not as upset. It was basically a carbon copy in the second half of the Ole Miss game last year. Any time we would get close they would make a contested shot. They made so many ridiculous shots that were back breakers. Usually deep in the shot clock. We could never get that crucial stop to get over the hump like we did in the Rocky Top game. For a team that averages 65 points a game and is supposed to be offensively challenged they played above their heads and just were ridiculous in making clutch play after play on the road. It was one of those not meant to be games. Usually a team has a couple of those at home to inferior teams once or twice a season in college basketball. We never just accepted our fate and rolled over. Every time they pushed the lead out to 7 we would fight back and kept clawing our way back. We just ran out of time. This team may lack talent and shooting and shot makers but we def do not lack heart, grind and fight. WAR DAMN BOYS!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!

[GwillMac6 20,607]

1 minute ago, abw0004 said:

I just do not understand why Bruce has not told his team to stop shooting three's, or to say only certain players can shoot threes.  These dumb 3-point shots are the reason we lost the ones we did.

TAMU is elite in numbers at getting teams to attempt lots of three point shots a game. Like top 5 in the country good I think. That is what their whole defense is based off of. College basketball is a lot easier to defend and come up with a effective defensive game plan than the NBA for obvious reasons. BUT ALSO FOR because there is no defensive 3 seconds so you can just park multiple guys in the paint and stand there all game. We are easy to game plan for. Zone us to death. Take away our driving lanes and teams are not scared of us at all making our shots. And for good reason. We lost 3 awesome 3 point shooters last year. The 3 guys we thought we had who were good 3 point shooters in Samir, Purifoy and Mac all regressed a lot from last year in terms of % from three. Especially the latter 2. We simply do not have the offensive firepower, talent, explosiveness and shot making on this team to make teams pay for going zone. At the end of the day this was supposed to be a rebuilding year and somehow with all role players besides Okoro and Wiley we will make the NCAA tourney as no worse than a 6 seed most likely. WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! WAR DAMN!!!!!! Not the way we wanted to end the regular season but taking the orange and blue tinted glasses off it is easy to see why. It is incredible we have won 24 games with this team. This really is probaly a 15 win team on paper for real. 

[GwillMac6 20,607]

 

[abw0004 10,107]

9 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

TAMU is elite in numbers at getting teams to attempt lots of three point shots a game. Like top 5 in the country good I think. That is what their whole defense is based off of. College basketball is a lot easier to defend and come up with a effective defensive game plan than the NBA for obvious reasons. BUT ALSO FOR because there is no defensive 3 seconds so you can just park multiple guys in the paint and stand there all game. We are easy to game plan for. Zone us to death. Take away our driving lanes and teams are not scared of us at all making our shots. And for good reason. We lost 3 awesome 3 point shooters last year. The 3 guys we thought we had who were good 3 point shooters in Samir, Purifoy and Mac all regressed a lot from last year in terms of % from three. Especially the latter 2. We simply do not have the offensive firepower, talent, explosiveness and shot making on this team to make teams pay for going zone. At the end of the day this was supposed to be a rebuilding year and somehow with all role players besides Okoro and Wiley we will make the NCAA tourney as no worse than a 6 seed most likely. WOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! WAR DAMN!!!!!! Not the way we wanted to end the regular season but taking the orange and blue tinted glasses off it is easy to see why. It is incredible we have won 24 games with this team. This really is probaly a 15 win team on paper for real. 

I agree with all of that.  The issue is if Bruce knows for a fact we are not good at shooting three's, why has he not made any attempt to stop us from shooting the three so much?  Go back to the first half of the game.  If we would just drive to the basket or shoot more jumpers and only a measly 25% of those are buckets, we would have won the game.  It is like a free for all out there were every player thinks they can shoot the three, especially the reserves.  Think back to all of those losses.  In all of those we were 20% from the three and shot 35+ threes.  One thing I have also noticed is our starters are good at passing the ball, but the second the reserves go in and they get the ball, they shoot a three.  The only reserve to not do this is Jalen Williams.

It is just common sense to me that if we are not a good three point team, don't shoot the majority of your shots in a game at the three point line.  Or maybe I am crazy which is also possible.

[GwillMac6 20,607]

18 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

I agree with all of that.  The issue is if Bruce knows for a fact we are not good at shooting three's, why has he not made any attempt to stop us from shooting the three so much?  Go back to the first half of the game.  If we would just drive to the basket or shoot more jumpers and only a measly 25% of those are buckets, we would have won the game.  It is like a free for all out there were every player thinks they can shoot the three, especially the reserves.  Think back to all of those losses.  In all of those we were 20% from the three and shot 35+ threes.  One thing I have also noticed is our starters are good at passing the ball, but the second the reserves go in and they get the ball, they shoot a three.  The only reserve to not do this is Jalen Williams.

It is just common sense to me that if we are not a good three point team, don't shoot the majority of your shots in a game at the three point line.  Or maybe I am crazy which is also possible.

It is the only open shot we are going to get most of the time when teams go zone against us. That is why. Teams are having 2 and sometimes 3 defenders in the paint at all times to take away driving lanes. There is simply no lanes to drive the basket in. You do not want guys to bowling ball their way in to the lane in to the waiting arms of the defense. It will be a turnover or a bad shot most of the time. WE SIMPLY HAVE to make our open threes. We have to get teams out of this zone against us so we can feed Wiley and Okoro more and get them in spots to succeed.  All the games we lost on the road is well because we were on the road. That is just college bball. A lot of our fans still struggle to gasp this concept. It is how there is so many upsets in college bball. That and the talent disparity is A LOT closer than college football. The only games on the road we should not of lost is the 2 games we were missing Okoro. That was very unfortunate timing. No IDK if we would of won the Mizzou game with Okoro because they were scorching and played their best game of the season and had guys playing head and shoulders above their normal output but we def would of beaten Georgia with him. Georgia did not play well that game but we played absolutely awful and still had chances to win that game. 

[AUTigersfan89 256]

39 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

I just do not understand why Bruce has not told his team to stop shooting three's, or to say only certain players can shoot threes.  These dumb 3-point shots are the reason we lost the ones we did.

Yep

[fishepa 1,899]

There are multiple way to get teams out of a zone.  The most obvious is making 3's, but when you're not doing that it's good passing.  Putting someone on the free throw line and getting them the ball, then cutting to the basket for back door plays etc.  Like I said  there is a # of ways to do it, and we did it a couple of games ago against another team that tried the zone.  Not sure why we didn't go back to it.  If I were Bruce I would practice against some zone because that seems to be the blue print to beat us,  just make us shoot 3's.  

[GwillMac6 20,607]

Just now, fishepa said:

There are multiple way to get teams out of a zone.  The most obvious is making 3's, but when you're not doing that it's good passing.  Putting someone on the free throw line and getting them the ball, then cutting to the basket for back door plays etc.  Like I said  there is a # of ways to do it, and we did it a couple of games ago against another team that tried the zone.  Not sure why we didn't go back to it.  If I were Bruce I would practice against some zone because that seems to be the blue print to beat us,  just make us shoot 3's.  

It is why I can easily see us going ice cold in round 1 in the NCAA's and it is deuces for us!!! The thing that TAMU does so well like Kermit teams is they switch defenses so frequently and it was really really giving us trouble.  We are slow to figure out the other team schematically sometimes. Same with the token pressure. Jvon does not do well with pressure as we all know and by the time we got in to our sets in the half court the clock was already down to like 22 on the clock. Buzz is a awesome coach. He has punched way above his weight class this season with this team. 

[gravejd 3,269]

This one really stung. And now we have to go into Tenn and get a win to avoid crawling to the finish line like we had to a couple seasons ago when Mac got hurt. I think getting the win in Tenn is going to be a tall ask for this team but maybe they have it in them. I'm not one to complain about refs but this one it seemed like every call went A&Ms way. The double technical on Bruce and Steven ended up being game changing moment. Steven HAS GOT to learn that he can not talk to the refs. I think that is atleast his second technical this season. He better learn to keep it down or he needs to excuse himself from sitting on the bench. Its one thing fro the head coach to get a tech but that is not acceptable for assistant coaches. 

Also A&M had the perfect game plan and style of play to beat us. Usually at home we can make enough shots to hurt folks who dare us to shoot but not this game. Perfect record at home would have been such a great accomplishment for this team. I hate they could not finish the job

[abw0004 10,107]

47 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

It is the only open shot we are going to get most of the time when teams go zone against us. That is why. Teams are having 2 and sometimes 3 defenders in the paint at all times to take away driving lanes. There is simply no lanes to drive the basket in. You do not want guys to bowling ball their way in to the lane in to the waiting arms of the defense. It will be a turnover or a bad shot most of the time.

Any worse though than the three-pointers that are taken usually with half of the clock left?  I would have just liked to see more pick and rolls or jump shots at the free throw line.

[Mikey 16,550]

"The only way to defeat a properly played 2-3 zone is with good outside shooting." Excerpt from Bob Cousy's book, circa 1970's. That's a simplification to be sure, but there's a lot of truth in it.

[thewhiz7 273]

   The double T's are what got us. We came back from 7 down at the half and then went from leading to being down all in that one possession. 

[Gowebb11 9,308]

Our ability to dribble, penetrate, and drive from the point guard position is significantly less than it was last year, and I believe that limits ours offense a lot. Makes it much easier to defend. 

[AURex 1,984]

12 hours ago, GwillMac6 said:

Well at least the SEC title was not on the line! lol.

Well, what I was alluding to was the fact that, since Kentucky lost to Tennessee at home Tuesday night, it opened the door for Auburn. IF Auburn were to beat A&M and then Tennessee on Saturday, and IF Kentucky were to lose to Florida on Saturday, if my counting is correct, Auburn would have finished the season tied with Kentucky atop the SEC. (I now think my counting was not correct, so my error).

But now, Auburn is likely to be caught up in a logjam of 11-7 teams, because I'm not optimistic about beating Tennessee in Knoxville.

 

[milehighfan 1,239]

It's been apparent all season they can't throw one in the ocean in regards to three point shooting. I kept thinking why not get it inside to Wylie? I guess they think if they shoot enough threes.  eventually, they will start to drop. But it hasn't happened yet and I wouldn't count on it changing any time soon.

 

[doverstutts 1,643]

37 minutes ago, thewhiz7 said:

   The double T's are what got us. We came back from 7 down at the half and then went from leading to being down all in that one possession. 

You are 100% correct, BUT, I would have got tossed a lot earlier than that. The calls kinda' evened up after that. Last night just qualifies, again, why technology should be pursued to officiate games. The quality of people that officiate games today has dropped off considerably and we have many who should not be doing anything but cleaning the stalls at the bus station. Lie detector tests should be given on a regular basis because many of these officials bet on the games that they call. If you think that point shaving doesn't happen, keep your eyes on the point spreads, particularly in blowout games, and what happens with weird stuff at the end of those blowout games.

I know that the officials in the conference are done by contract and not by a league sponsored agreement, like football. Maybe its time to look at that because I watch other games in other conferences, and I do not see the poor quality officiating that I see in the SEC and ACC. The officiating in last nights game would have still been awful even if we had won. Don't get me wrong though, the mongrels in the striped shirts have nothing to do with taking bad shots, missed FT's, and making stupid decisions. They didn't help last night, for sure, but the loss is not on them entirely. A smarter brand of basketball would have helped

[keesler 5,924]

1 hour ago, doverstutts said:

The quality of people that officiate games today has dropped off considerably and we have many who should not be doing anything but cleaning the stalls at the bus station. Lie detector tests should be given on a regular basis because many of these officials bet on the games that they call. If you think that point shaving doesn't happen, keep your eyes on the point spreads, particularly in blowout games, and what happens with weird stuff at the end of those blowout games.

 

I've been thinking this for YEARS.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

For some reason, Auburn has really gone down since we were 22-4. What the hack has happend?

[steeleagle 2,945]

8 minutes ago, auburn4ever said:

For some reason, Auburn has really gone down since we were 22-4. What the hack has happend?

Gone down?

after 22-4, we beat UT(without Okoro), we beat Ole Miss, then lost a close game to UK, and a close game to TaM at home.

so we went 2-2. other than a loss at home, where have we gone down so bad?

The problem is those games we lost on the road without Okoro. We would have won 1 or both of those...

[BigSammyK 171]

The way I see this season: We've been playing with house money since we beat Kentucky. If someone had told me in October that this team would finish 25-6/24-7 and be a #3 or #4 seed in the SEC Tourney I'd have taken it in a heartbeat.

[cole256 17,039]

There's nothing new to invent, the best way to beat a zone is going high low and killing it, minus shooting them out of one......

[BHDAU1 240]

16 hours ago, GwillMac6 said:

There is a LOT of things to criticize about this team. BUT EFFORT?!?! YOU SERIOUS CLARKE?!? lol. That is one of the few things we are good at!!! This team is all effort. All heart. All guts. Honestly this is about a 15-17 team win based on talent level. But effort and heart have led to what should of been a down year in to going to the NCAA TOURNEY. I have to keep telling that myself when we have one of these losses to bad teams. It is a tough pill to swallow but it is the truth.

Yes effort, ON DEFENSE.  There has been a very poor collective effort on the defensive end this entire last month. Between not getting back on defense in time to stop easy buckets and the general lack of intensity and focus on defense, Auburn has been doomed to lose.  I have lauded Auburn's effort many many times this year, but lately that is not the case.  They are slow to switch on defense and slow to help their teammates.  You can go back and watch the last 6 games or so and see the difference.  How many charges has Auburn drawn in that period? Far too few , and that is always a sign of effort in my opinion.  Anyway, I hope that they will get it together and go on a run to end the year.  Auburn basketball to me has been a lot of fun to watch these last few years, more so than football in many ways.  They are capable of it but only if the defensive intensity and effort is picked up.  AU does not have a dynamic offense and no one on the team is going to suddenly become a better shooter overnight, so their best chance of winning going forward is a smothering defense.  IMHO