Men vs USF Game Thread

[tgrogan21 6,198]

Just now, Maverick.AU said:

Zep makes both!!! 57-52! 32 seconds left 

Ice in the veins.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

Zep in those corners was a really good spot for him. Open twice and then Zep's man rode Wendell's back like 3 minutes ago, he was open again. Zep has really good form, I hope those open 3s pop up more often for him 

Edited November 20, 2021 by Dual-Threat Rigby

[InfernoOrangeSS 321]

Great defense that round.

[Maverick.AU 13,279]

KD makes 1-2 58-52 AU! 13 seconds left

[difball 310]

Just my observation but the NBA is a pick and roll league and Bruce needs to make that work better. Guys are rolling out to soon or the guard isn't carrying the ball around the pick and if he does the picker is late on rolling - it's really hard to watch. They are young and it will take some time to get in tune with your team mate. But they need to make the pick n roll like magic. You do that and you will have kids lining up to come here

[Maverick.AU 13,279]

Final!!! 58-52 AU. Way to respond guys! War Eagle everybody!!

[mustache eagle 2,388]

Down by 15 and win by 6

[fishepa 1,900]

Good win. 

[tgrogan21 6,198]

Survive and win. I'll take a road W any day of the week. War Eagle!

[InfernoOrangeSS 321]

Good game against the most physical team we have played so far that I have seen.

 

[difball 310]

19.2% from 3 - yikes

[JDUBB4AU 5,102]

Thank you for the game coverage as always. WDE 

[TexasTiger 12,811]

Felt kinda Gussified.

[ShocksMyBrain 9,362]

Still growing. Glad Bruce uses these games against quality opponents to figure out his roster. 

[AUwent 3,747]

I forgot how fast basketball games went by.

Edited November 20, 2021 by AUwent

[au302 2,669]

18 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Cambridge is so smart off ball 

if the 3 ever does work for him, dude could have a career somewhere 

Hopefully for South Alabama next year (joking)

[AuburnNTexas 7,128]

Winning on the road when down is always a good thing but there are some things to work on. When we scored down low from a pass it seemed like it was always a big man passing to big man. Way to many times Kessler had great down low position and an open passing lane and no pass, same with Smith.

Hustle on defense was great in second half also the shot blocking.  I just went to box score and it said we had 6 blocks and Kessler had 3. I saw Kessler block more than 3. The start of the second half when Auburn played lock down defense with Kessler down low altering shots and everybody hounding the other players was Auburn at its best. We shot a very low percentage at under 35% with 3 point percent at 19.2% and still won. We out rebounded them by 11.

I was not nice to Cambridge in 1st half but he played really well in 2nd half on defensive end and in moving without the ball and getting some monster slams. He needs to avoid taking the 3 point shot. The only really bad thing I can say about the second half is near the end of  the game when it looked like we were about to take control of the game we stopped the ball movement and the guars went back to dribble, dribble, dribble then force something as clock was running down. The guars have some skills they play hard on defense and seem to wear other teams down but they don't know how to hit the big men down low and they don't know how to run the pick and roll. With players like Smith, Williams, and Kessler the pick and roll should be a bread and butter type play.

I see a lot of potential and as I said earlier I believe that when Flanagan returns and gets back into the flow we will be a very dangerous team. The next week or so we will be playing some pretty good teams so we should get a real feel on how good we will be without Flanagan.

 

[AUGoo 2,659]

1 hour ago, difball said:

19.2% from 3 - yikes

Tired legs

[Zeek 16,616]

My man crush KD leading the team in points! Good teams can win ugly. 

[AUlurker 178]

Cambridge was +24 tonight. That's why he plays despite his 3 point shooting. Wendell was invisible tonight. KD continues to be a spark off the bench. If we can get our offense going, this team will do well in March.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

2 hours ago, AUlurker said:

Cambridge was +24 tonight. That's why he plays despite his 3 point shooting. Wendell was invisible tonight. KD continues to be a spark off the bench. If we can get our offense going, this team will do well in March.

Yeah folks around the Internet gave him crap for missing open shots, this entire team sans Zep missed open shots. Wendell outside of that first half of that first game has been a walking brick from outside, and while he’s tasked with far more on offense, we’ve seen before how much BP’s Os are limited by a non shooting lead guard. And Wendell might have the least tools outside of shooting on O than any of his recent predecessors. Glad he started trying to drive and kick more as the game progressed though. 
 

This roster really needs a Jamal or Powell in that Berman role. Just a guy who can play serviceable defense, spell the guards and knock down a shot. I think the game is just too fast for Berman sometimes and generating him open shots is usually pretty low on the pecking order. But he’s the closest to what those two guys brought…not really any snipers to be found. 

[tgrogan21 6,198]

3 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Yeah folks around the Internet gave him crap for missing open shots, this entire team sans Zep missed open shots. Wendell outside of that first half of that first game has been a walking brick from outside, and while he’s tasked with far more on offense, we’ve seen before how much BP’s Os are limited by a non shooting lead guard. And Wendell might have the least tools outside of shooting on O than any of his recent predecessors. Glad he started trying to drive and kick more as the game progressed though. 
 

This roster really needs a Jamal or Powell in that Berman role. Just a guy who can play serviceable defense, spell the guards and knock down a shot. I think the game is just too fast for Berman sometimes and generating him open shots is usually pretty low on the pecking order. But he’s the closest to what those two guys brought…not really any snipers to be found. 

I think it's different when comparing Cambridge to the new guys on the team. Before the season, Zep shot 40%, 36%, 34% and this year he's shooting 40% from 3. Wendell shot 36% in his freshman year. Cambridge was a 28% shooter last year and is 1-13 this year. He falls in love with the 3 and it's frustrating as hell because we've seen how much better he plays when he moves without the ball and drives into the paint. Instead, he stays at that 3 point line and waits for the shot clock to go down to 3-5 and then throws up a brick.

It's fine if he's a sub 30% shooter and he only takes 1-2 a game but he tends to take around 5-6 a game. There was a game last year where he took 10 3 point shots. If he would just continue to do what works, he wouldn't absolutely stall and kill momentum.

[bigbird 60,368]

11 hours ago, AuburnNTexas said:

Winning on the road when down is always a good thing but there are some things to work on. When we scored down low from a pass it seemed like it was always a big man passing to big man. Way to many times Kessler had great down low position and an open passing lane and no pass, same with Smith.

Hustle on defense was great in second half also the shot blocking.  I just went to box score and it said we had 6 blocks and Kessler had 3. I saw Kessler block more than 3. The start of the second half when Auburn played lock down defense with Kessler down low altering shots and everybody hounding the other players was Auburn at its best. We shot a very low percentage at under 35% with 3 point percent at 19.2% and still won. We out rebounded them by 11.

I was not nice to Cambridge in 1st half but he played really well in 2nd half on defensive end and in moving without the ball and getting some monster slams. He needs to avoid taking the 3 point shot. The only really bad thing I can say about the second half is near the end of  the game when it looked like we were about to take control of the game we stopped the ball movement and the guars went back to dribble, dribble, dribble then force something as clock was running down. The guars have some skills they play hard on defense and seem to wear other teams down but they don't know how to hit the big men down low and they don't know how to run the pick and roll. With players like Smith, Williams, and Kessler the pick and roll should be a bread and butter type play.

I see a lot of potential and as I said earlier I believe that when Flanagan returns and gets back into the flow we will be a very dangerous team. The next week or so we will be playing some pretty good teams so we should get a real feel on how good we will be without Flanagan.

 

It's been that way forever. @cole256 and  I have talked a bunch about our guard's inability to get good entry passes to our bigs. 

[abw0004 10,107]

I didn’t get to see the first half but I watched the second.  Great win for us but we have issues to fix as everyone else said.

For comparison purposes, our Final Four team had a lot of issues in the regular season as well and only got it together by the time it was the SEC Tournament.  

[augolf1716 21,096]

Guys learning to play together so many new faces it will take time lots of potential to look forward to