Men vs Alabama

[Maverick.AU 13,279]

1 minute ago, tgrogan21 said:

Say it louder for the people in the back!

Ok I just came to post this. Wtf

[tgrogan21 6,198]

Just now, Maverick.AU said:

Ok I just came to post this. Wtf

I'm gonna miss basketball season! So much fun on this board every year with you.

Also, I replied to a tweet a few weeks ago saying that if Coop stays next year the Auburn team will be ranked top 5 and Jabari liked it. Not sure if he has any info or not but ... I'm just going to say he does and that means Coop is staying. lol

[auburn4ever 1,266]

It is so painful to watch coach Pearl and his team "play" this year. It looks like the players and coaches have taken a dive. Auburn has won 1 out of the last 4 games with uat.

[Mikey 16,580]

The first 10 minutes or so of these last few games, the players look like we greased their hands before the game started. Can't catch or hold the ball. That plus the matador defense has put us in a hole. Tonight we couldn't climb out.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,665]

No such thing as a moral victory, but this defense is legit when they're locked in guys. They let up some threes that Alabama uncharacteristically missed, but they didn't shoot much better than us (and I'd consider us a below avg 3 pt shooting team) in the first matchup. That was with a babyface Cooper who basically looked like he just found out about defense

I'm gonna compile some things I'd like to see improve and good good things that are already here, as we lead into the next offseason, but there were some really good things that happened tonight that're never going to be remembered. They generated more open looks from 3 than Bammers have cousins. Jamal Johnson looks like a really decent ball handler when he isn't being pressed by John Petty or Herbert Jones (or both). 

No, the guys did not do well handling the ball pressure from their 1-3, but that was pretty much to be expected. They get...35x better than where they're currently at, going into next season? I think there was value in letting Thor and Williams get it how they wanted it on the court, isolated on one side of the court and just letting them try to create. Didn't always go great, but it's something that is on film that both they and the staff can work on. ALSO, it shows that BP recognized that just having Flan and Jamal run into a brick wall was not the move. This is not criticism per se, but the past 2 games has shown real evolution from BP, in a situation that we seem content on NOT adjusting to in the:

1. Non-Powell minutes in the first trimester of the season

2. Non-Cooper minutes in the second 

3. and the non Coop or Powell minutes in between

It was my biggest critique of him this season, riding out Tyrell, riding out bad Flan (fine when its good Flan, you can usually tell which one it'll be pretty early), and he didn't have to answer it for me. But in the world where Cooper and Powell aren't on the court for some reason, and Alexander might still be a little green, I just wanted to know we weren't gonna have the ball exclusively move through one guy in the second unit while Thor and Jabari just stand on the wing and wait until its their turn 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,665]

4 hours ago, tgrogan21 said:

Say it louder for the people in the back!

I don't have it in me to call anything after how the basketball gods did us with Chuma, then the refs carrying UVA through, and then covid (not to even mention Maclemore). 

Absolutely healthy, no major attrition, I do think its safe to say we're top 5 minimum. That's the one thing I can put my finger on

[GwillMac6 20,671]

4 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I don't have it in me to call anything after how the basketball gods did us with Chuma, then the refs carrying UVA through, and then covid (not to even mention Maclemore). 

Absolutely healthy, no major attrition, I do think its safe to say we're top 5 minimum. That's the one thing I can put my finger on

Lol I'm 94 percent sure he is talking about his high school basketball 🏀 season.

[AUBwins 10,075]

1 hour ago, GwillMac6 said:

Lol I'm 94 percent sure he is talking about his high school basketball 🏀 season.

Probably, but we can look back at it again once we get train moving again next year all the way to the Ship. Make him look like a prophet!

Honestly the injuries to our 2 best facilitators may have been the gift we needed for next year being their chances to return have increased. It also caused others getting draft looks to be playing out of position.  Can't wait for next year in a full Auburn arena. 

[steeleagle 2,945]

2 hours ago, AUBwins said:

Probably, but we can look back at it again once we get train moving again next year all the way to the Ship. Make him look like a prophet!

Honestly the injuries to our 2 best facilitators may have been the gift we needed for next year being their chances to return have increased. It also caused others getting draft looks to be playing out of position.  Can't wait for next year in a full Auburn arena. 

I don't think the injuries had anything to do with Powell and Coop coming back. They both were going to need another year to refine their skills if they want to be high draft picks. 

I think our loss of PG play significantly contributed to the lack of offense(as Pearl put it), and our uncomfortable ball handling by players that shouldn't be handling it that much causing massive TO totals, along being just being so young.

Hopefully, next year will come together better. But we're no where near a top 5 team potential..until we see better cohesiveness and shore up our weaknesses from this year on D.

[AuburnNTexas 7,141]

Our saw some good things and bad things in the bama game.  Especially at the beginning of the game we had a lot of turnovers but unlike in previous high turnover games it was more on the receivers then the passers.  We had people who just didn't catch the ball on good passes because they saw defenders coming at them hard at them or they weren't expecting the pass. bama played Thor very physically every time he drove they body bumped him often causing a turnover.  Some of the bumps might have been fouls but the refs were letting both teams play most of the time. A stronger player actually uses the body bump as a way to separate from the defender often times actually initiating the bump themselves. Williams being a little thicker and stronger actually handled this very well.  Stretch can't catch the ball and when he does he shuffles his feet leading to turnovers. Cardwell showed both the good Cardwell and the bad Cardwell I think he will be better next year and we will see more of the good Cardwell and less of the bad Cardwell. I think Flanagan was trying to do to much so got away from his game. I feel for Flanagan because of injuries to our facilitators he has to take on roles that don't fit his game. In the long run it will make him a better player but it is why one game he looks like a star and other games he doesn't. He always plays hard and competes. Cambridge has some really good plays and some bad ones. He needs a facilitator to get him into the flow where he can take advantage of his athleticism. When Cooper 1st started he blossomed until teams started to back off Cooper clog the lane more.

I saw sometimes where we played lock down D and other times we yelled OLE as they dribbled past us. Our outside guard didn't get back on defense. I saw a long pass to Cardwell who went up and got the ball in a crowd and dunked it and on the pass in the man who received it in the backcourt after the dunk went the length of the court to shoot a layup. A man who makes a pass from Outside the top of the key should easily be able to get back and stop a player who dribbles the length of the court.  

I like how this team got down big a few times then fought back it would have been easy to give up. This team despite how slender they are killed bama on the boards. This team needs an off season to strengthen and thicken certain players. This team has a lot of quality pieces they just need time together with everyone healthy so that the team can become better than the individual parts. With a Powell and Alexander providing a real three point threat so teams can't clog up the lane which hurts players like Flanagan, Cambridge and Williams.  A real three point threat also helps Cooper by allowing him to drive and dish or go to the rack.