Remembering The 2017-18 Team

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,640]

Horace Spencer - 4*, Regular season SEC champion, Postseason SEC champion, fantastic player overseas in the Argentina league

Jared Harper - 4*, Regular season SEC champion, Postseason SEC champion, first team G-Leaguer, 2x Second-team All-SEC, on and off NBA player 

Bryce Brown - 3*, Regular season SEC champion, Postseason SEC champion, 2x Second-team All-SEC, SEC tourney MVP, Auburn's all time made 3 point leader

Danjel Purifoy - 4*, there for the entirety of the best 4 year stretch Auburn's had

Chuma Okeke - On pace to be the best NBA player Auburn has had in......a GOOD while. Also would've been the MVP of the entire tourney if he didn't get hurt   Turned down Scott Drew's tampering as well! 

Mustapha Heron - 5*, helped break the mold for the type of recruit Auburn could get. Unfortunately had to transfer for personal reasons, and ran into injuries. Won bronze for the United States National team and last noted for signing to the British Basketball League

Davion Mitchell - 4*, routinely compared to Donovan Mitchell, who is very good. Just won national championship. Better version of Marcus Smart. Had Jalen Suggs (top 5 pick) in prison for the most part

Devontae Williams - Contributed at some point I'm sure. Also SEC regular season champion, postseason champion

Desean Murray - Cinmeon Bowers in a 6'3 body. An Auburn player with a 84% free throw rate (!!!!). Also Big South freshman of the year and All-Freshman and All-Conference.

Malik Dunbar - 

Samir Doughty - 32 points to bury a Rick Barnes team (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Also did 

 

Anfernee McLemore - Arguably the hardest worker and smartest player from the entire team, fantastic stretch 5 and nailed 2 of the most clutch FTs you'll ever see to put Auburn in a position to beat UVA. 

Austin Wiley - Fringe 5 star guy (depending on the service) that did some wonderful things himself to help Auburn grow as a recruiting factory. May never earn the respect he truly deserves, but a legacy cat that always stuck around and is currently signed over in Germany

I got tired towards the end of this, but can't forget the bench mob of Cole Blackstock, Thomas Collier (this guy has been here forever lol), Brett Easterling, Will Macoy, and STUD! Patrick Keim

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,640]

That took almost 30 minutes to put together, but the point is

Bruce Pearl is going to be here until he's 100, and deserves to be here even longer. Every player went to the NCAA tourney, and I believe every one other than Mustapha at least went to the final four. 

[slyinsocal 831]

As Clark Kellogg would say, that group had some serious "spurtability". Those were some guys who could knock down shots. Protect the rim and wreak havoc on the defensive end. Big runs, 8-0, 10-0, 12-0, were quite common. In the blink of an eye, whether it was to take the lead, or blow a game open, you KNEW one was coming to rip the heart out of an opponent.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,640]

29 minutes ago, slyinsocal said:

As Clark Kellogg would say, that group had some serious "spurtability". Those were some guys who could knock down shots. Protect the rim and wreak havoc on the defensive end. Big runs, 8-0, 10-0, 12-0, were quite common. In the blink of an eye, whether it was to take the lead, or blow a game open, you KNEW one was coming to rip the heart out of an opponent.

yeah, its always going to be underrated due to the second team going to the final four, and the last team having the long undefeated streak, but that first year appeared to be a squad that was going to DOMINATE the SEC up until Mac's injury. 2 Ls between November 29th and that fateful injury on February 17th, 2018. One was to Alabama in Coleman vs Colin Sexton, the other was a very contentious finish against TAMU at home. 

This was a team that had their depth stripped by having 2 of their best players from the previous team not allowed to play either. I think there's a legitimate chance that the long term chemistry might be lessened by having Purifoy who WAS ball dominant and Wiley who would've disallowed them from being as greenlit from outside as they were, but it maybe prevents the late season collapse where they were forced to run a 6 man rotation. 

[slyinsocal 831]

3 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

yeah, its always going to be underrated due to the second team going to the final four, and the last team having the long undefeated streak, but that first year appeared to be a squad that was going to DOMINATE the SEC up until Mac's injury. 2 Ls between November 29th and that fateful injury on February 17th, 2018. One was to Alabama in Coleman vs Colin Sexton, the other was a very contentious finish against TAMU at home. 

This was a team that had their depth stripped by having 2 of their best players from the previous team not allowed to play either. I think there's a legitimate chance that the long term chemistry might be lessened by having Purifoy who WAS ball dominant and Wiley who would've disallowed them from being as greenlit from outside as they were, but it maybe prevents the late season collapse where they were forced to run a 6 man rotation. 

Agreed. If those 2 had played, I doubt that team would have developed into the truly wide open, explosive team they became. The flip side of that was razor thin depth inside, which was exposed with Mac's devastating injury. Mac was terrific and did so many things well. He picked and popped the 3, dashed to the rim for a lob, AND filled the lane on the break on the offensive end, while protecting the rim, rebounding, and quick enough to switch in a man to man D on the defensive end.

[gravejd 3,267]

Pre-injury Mac and Harper were so much fun to watch!! So many times Mac would reject a shot and then run down the court and jam home the lob from Harper!! One of the most fun teams i've seen play. Defense was suffocating and offense was 100 miles an hour with 3s raining down from everywhere! I think part of the reason it was so fun was because we had just gotten our hearts ripped out prior to the season with the Person scandal. I was so high on that team with Wiley coming back and Purifoy out there with all the rest.....looked like such a strong team. And then 2 lose who we thought our best players were (we found out they weren't later) was soo debilitating as a fan. To turn around and see that kind of basketball from the team was special. We may have better teams in the coming years with more talent and NBA players but its going to be hard to top the Spencer, Harper, Brown, Dunbar, and Mac teams. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,640]

3 hours ago, gravejd said:

Pre-injury Mac and Harper were so much fun to watch!! So many times Mac would reject a shot and then run down the court and jam home the lob from Harper!! One of the most fun teams i've seen play. Defense was suffocating and offense was 100 miles an hour with 3s raining down from everywhere! I think part of the reason it was so fun was because we had just gotten our hearts ripped out prior to the season with the Person scandal. I was so high on that team with Wiley coming back and Purifoy out there with all the rest.....looked like such a strong team. And then 2 lose who we thought our best players were (we found out they weren't later) was soo debilitating as a fan. To turn around and see that kind of basketball from the team was special. We may have better teams in the coming years with more talent and NBA players but its going to be hard to top the Spencer, Harper, Brown, Dunbar, and Mac teams. 

 

11 hours ago, slyinsocal said:

Agreed. If those 2 had played, I doubt that team would have developed into the truly wide open, explosive team they became. The flip side of that was razor thin depth inside, which was exposed with Mac's devastating injury. Mac was terrific and did so many things well. He picked and popped the 3, dashed to the rim for a lob, AND filled the lane on the break on the offensive end, while protecting the rim, rebounding, and quick enough to switch in a man to man D on the defensive end.

One thing I didn't include was Mac was the highest graded rim protector in the conference pre injury. Unfortunately his bounce never got back the same (maybe it was all physical, all mental) and he never did move his feet quite the same. But before that, I would honestly contend he was the most athletic player on the team.