What does the Memphis loss tell us?

[AURex 1,984]

 

Memphis dominated Auburn in every facet of the game. Even areas in which Auburn has, in the past, excelled like defense and rebounding. This 2-loss team just made Auburn look like a scheduling cupcake.

I've been talking about this since late last year. Teams with any size at all inside will collapse, forcing Auburn to prove they can make outside shots. And if they drive inside, out-rebound and break for easy points. Even with Jabari and Kessler inside, this was the script for opponents to bat Auburn late in the season last year -- and it worked.

CBP has a LOT of work to do with this team. With no outside threat and teams collapsing inside, it's a tough road ahead.

 

[tinman1 485]

7 hours ago, AURex said:

 

Memphis dominated Auburn in every facet of the game. Even areas in which Auburn has, in the past, excelled like defense and rebounding. This 2-loss team just made Auburn look like a scheduling cupcake.

I've been talking about this since late last year. Teams with any size at all inside will collapse, forcing Auburn to prove they can make outside shots. And if they drive inside, out-rebound and break for easy points. Even with Jabari and Kessler inside, this was the script for opponents to bat Auburn late in the season last year -- and it worked.

CBP has a LOT of work to do with this team. With no outside threat and teams collapsing inside, it's a tough road ahead.

 

Agree.  I was really disappointed last night.  Not ready to panic just yet, but we have many weaknesses.  No Jabari or other outside shooters to force other team to come out and defend.  In looking around the SEC, at this point in time we appear to be middle of the pack.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

We can’t shoot and the offense is stagnant. Broom is a disappointment so far, Westry is not a point guard ( we have no backup to WG), and JW and AF are not playing well. 
Simply put: we can’t put the ball in the basket. Our schedule has been cupcakes. 
Teams realize we are only good if we have a lot of transition points so they are getting back and clogging the middle. Again, we can’t shoot. There is no Jabari to bail us out. 
 

[TexasTiger 12,811]

9 hours ago, AURex said:

 

Memphis dominated Auburn in every facet of the game. Even areas in which Auburn has, in the past, excelled like defense and rebounding. This 2-loss team just made Auburn look like a scheduling cupcake.

I've been talking about this since late last year. Teams with any size at all inside will collapse, forcing Auburn to prove they can make outside shots. And if they drive inside, out-rebound and break for easy points. Even with Jabari and Kessler inside, this was the script for opponents to bat Auburn late in the season last year -- and it worked.

CBP has a LOT of work to do with this team. With no outside threat and teams collapsing inside, it's a tough road ahead.

 

Bruce’s offense always looks like a bunch of athletic guys playing street ball. Sometimes it works, but against talented, more disciplined well coached teams it often comes apart. When Auburn loses, they are usually outcoached.

[aubiefifty 16,716]

did they not start five seniors against us? many say this is the biggest difference in the game. man i sat down with some ribs to enjoy during the game. they were a tad overcooked and the rest was downhill. i will say i never give up on pearl but this might not be a great year. i do not think we were physical enough but then i am an armchair guy that knows little about the game.

[AUnCullman 601]

After watching the Israel series, I really liked Broome and thought he was going to be really good as the season went on. Not that he cant improve. I like his footwork but its almost like he tries to do too much. I think he/us will get better though. No better learning than at the school of hard knocks. 

One thing that would help is if our guards would quit taking low percentage 3's from bad spots. last year we were able to overcome those with Kessler and Jabari rebounding so well, but it was still there. 

All that being said, the future is bright! War Eagle!

[Mikey 16,550]

While the shooting may be a problem, the awful defense and rebounding were worse. Lets hope AU simply had a bad night instead of this team being as bad as it looked against Memphis.

[Quietmaninthecorner 1,945]

1 hour ago, AUnCullman said:

After watching the Israel series, I really liked Broome and thought he was going to be really good as the season went on. Not that he cant improve. I like his footwork but its almost like he tries to do too much. I think he/us will get better though. No better learning than at the school of hard knocks. 

One thing that would help is if our guards would quit taking low percentage 3's from bad spots. last year we were able to overcome those with Kessler and Jabari rebounding so well, but it was still there. 

All that being said, the future is bright! War Eagle!

Broome played lazy last night.    He seemed to be "out of position"  a lot (not under the basket when he needed to be)  and he needs to get his freaking arms in the air.   Why are his hands down by his hips when  someone is preparing and shooting?!! 

The guy has to have about a 7 foot wingspan.  He could have accidently blocked a couple of shots last night just by randomly raising his arms with his eyes closed.

 

I learned that Pearl is going to have a heart attack on the court one of these days.   

[icanthearyou 4,462]

When the guards stop passing, stop scoring,,, we're in trouble.

At some point, I think you have to consider playing the big line up.  If you are going to shoot a low percentage, you'd better be winning the rebounding battle.

[TigerPAC 960]

College ball is usually dictated by guards and heir play, not always, but usually 

[TigerTennis80 343]

I was also disappointed in the game yesterday, "but upon further review," I'm considering that maybe the loss brought less bad news than I initially thought. We all agree that our offense is a "work in progress" (to be kind), but here's reality check for us: We scored 73 on Memphis, which plays excellent defense. As an example of what I mean, I live in Memphis & the local paper picked the score to be 62-60. So I'd say that while there were definitely frustrations on offense, that part of our game wasn't the "problem" last night. Defense & rebounding, however, were huge problems, which I don't expect from us. Giving up 82 points to Memphis, whose offense is also a "work in progress" (though you couldn't tell it last night) is flat out awful. Bruce said post-game that we lacked focus, & I thought "no kidding." We looked like a team which hadn't played in 8 days, had been tied up in final exams (I don't know when finals were or are at Memphis, but they played last Tuesday), & hadn't gotten back into game rhythm either physically or mentally. Hopefully those things are fix-able. As Bruce has said repeatedly, defense has to be what leads us. A lack of focus really showed up in our defense last night, & in our rebounding. I have to trust that we won't have such a lack of focus again. My long term concerns are more focused on Broome & our freshmen. Broome has been far less effective (on offense & defense) against quality opponents. I question whether or not that's fix-able. And thus far Westry, Traore, & Donaldson (who's dropped out of the rotation) have contributed little. Westry's surgery set him back, for sure, but I don't see much improvement at this point from any of them in the games they've played. Bruce likes to say that our 10 are better than your 10, but against quality opponents that may not be true with so little contribution from the freshmen. I hope the light comes on for them, & soon.

[AUfan3333 74]

Yah I agree. I am also disappointed after that showing against Memphis. Broome looked a little intimidated to me last night. Honestly my main concern is the freshmen. Westry and Traore haven’t improved a bit. I expected much more from them. Donaldson needs to play more in my opinion. Not sure why these highly touted freshmen are playing scared. But just my opinions, I trust that BP will fix it!!

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,641]

CBP definitely puts too much on the intelligence of his ball handlers. There’s not much “system” to be had. To put it bluntly, no one on our side top to bottom had any idea on what to do when Memphis put pressure on the ball and Wendell wasn’t there to dribble. Rarely knew how to break their zone or punish them from sagging off so far that it looks like they never weren’t playing zone lol. 
 

Memphis played as dumb as we did for the majority of the game and still won fairly convincingly. Not a great look 

[GTNupe11 2,033]

That we played piss poor defense and were completely lazy in all facets of the game. 

[TigerPAC 960]

Apologies but I haven’t been able to watch much b-ball yet, but when I was at the St. Louis game, Donaldson did not play at all.  Any reason???  He did not appear hurt as he warmed up like every one else and was dunking.  

[AuburnNTexas 7,128]

Traore, Westry and Donaldson are the key to how much we can improve.  Tre needs more PT, Westry needs to play the 2 and Traore needs to start using the tools he has. In all 3 cases I think learning the system and gaining confidence will help. Westry at the 2 gives us a mid-range shooter who can pull up and opo which we need with teams sagging in. That can be as effective as the 3 to stop teams from sagging. 

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

I think we kinda had an idea about where we were with this team.  Shooting is very inconsistent.   Broome is inconsistent.  Traore and Westry are really young and still have a ways to go. And we just don’t play as well away from Auburn Arena in general.   So, although I was somewhat disappointed, I certainly wasn’t surprised.   

[Win4AU 4,052]

I’m definitely a band wagon bball fan.  I didn’t really pay attention to bball prior to Bruce and even then it wasn’t till the first tourney that I watched most every game.  That being said it’s still super early to get worried about this team.  I’d rather have a team that takes some lumps and gets better than a team like last year that peaks in January.  I’m not crazy about “street ball” that Auburn seems to play because it doesn’t work without shooters capable of gettIng hot and draining 3s like Auburn had with Bryce and Jared.  I have also noticed Ft % hasn’t been as good as those early teams had. 

[AuburnNTexas 7,128]

45 minutes ago, AUinMS9528 said:

I think we kinda had an idea about where we were with this team.  Shooting is very inconsistent.   Broome is inconsistent.  Traore and Westry are really young and still have a ways to go. And we just don’t play as well away from Auburn Arena in general.   So, although I was somewhat disappointed, I certainly wasn’t surprised.   

I think Bruce has spoiled us. He has talent on this team but no superstar and some of the best talent is young and not quite ready for the big show. Bruce has found a way to improve as the year goes on but this will be a harder road because of not having one or two go to guys. All year this team has been weak against Offensive rebounding even against over-matched teams.  We need to box out better and be in a better position to improve on that aspect. Rebounding is position, effort and desire that can be fixed as to shooting I have seen a little bit better shot selection this year but player and ball movement needs to improve on offense. We have a few players with a decent stroke Moore, Traore, Westry, Green  Moore takes the best shots as he knows his limits.  The others need better shot selection and to hit a couple to get their confidence.  

Our 3 point shooting was actually a little better against Memphis but ball movement was weak and handling pressure was weak. We have potential to get better but to do that we need more discipline both on O and D.

Edited December 12, 2022 by AuburnNTexas

[autigeremt 6,569]

Game 9.... a long ways to go and this team is a work in progress. I believe we will get better and better as the year moves along but I expect 6-8 loses during the season. We need better 3 pt shooting. 

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

It was a good test.   They know what they need to work on.  We’ll see how much improvement we can make between now and March.  

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

A lot of over reaction going in here. We lost a quad 1 game on a neutral floor by nine points (were within 5 multiple times in the second half), when we had an overall poor showing. This team was never going to go undefeated, and was always going to be a work in progress trying to build as the season plays out. Nothing has changed. This is exactly the type of game we knew would happen early in the year. Deep breaths. 

On 12/12/2022 at 9:37 AM, AuburnNTexas said:

Traore, Westry and Donaldson are the key to how much we can improve.  Tre needs more PT, Westry needs to play the 2 and Traore needs to start using the tools he has. In all 3 cases I think learning the system and gaining confidence will help. Westry at the 2 gives us a mid-range shooter who can pull up and opo which we need with teams sagging in. That can be as effective as the 3 to stop teams from sagging. 

I have been suggesting Chance play the 2. That is our weakest spot by far. I also like with Donaldson brings off the bench. Zep and KD are both undersized combo guards and Chance's ceiling is much higher. I will cheer for whoever is on the court, but KD cant take 15 shots and us win very often. This team is not going to shoot it's way out of any slump. The only way for the shooting number to go up is to take better shots or change who is taking them. 

 

18 hours ago, AUinMS9528 said:

It was a good test.   They know what they need to work on.  We’ll see how much improvement we can make between now and March.  

 

CBP will adjust the lineup/rotations. He will help these guys play better. Stay patient. 

[TuscaloosaTiger 281]

For me, this loss looked even worse after just  watching UA beat the #1 team in the nation, Houston, on their court. The latter was a really high-level, physically competitive game, whereas our game with Memphis looked like a JV warm-up game in which their point guard did whatever he wanted to do against our guards. Could be a long season in the SEC.

[JwgreDeux 1,279]

13 minutes ago, TuscaloosaTiger said:

For me, this loss looked even worse after just  watching UA beat the #1 team in the nation, Houston, on their court. The latter was a really high-level, physically competitive game, whereas our game with Memphis looked like a JV warm-up game in which their point guard did whatever he wanted to do against our guards. Could be a long season in the SEC.

I don't think we were watching the same games. The bama houston (71-65) game was a slop-fest as well. Houston shot 39% from the floor and 23% from three, bama shot 40% from the floor and 30% from three, both teams with more turnovers than assists. Just ugly basketball.  Bama's star freshman was 0-8 from the floor and 0-5 from three, really struggled all game. 

 

Davis (their PG) had a nice game, but it wasn't like he was lights out. Shot 47% from the field and 33% from three. He got 7 of his points from the stripe and took 20 shots. He was the best player that night and his 6 assists hurt us, but I think we are overreacting to this one. We didn't play well, but this isn't a sign of the apocalypse. 

[gravejd 3,269]

Good post per usual jwgreDeux....no one ever expected this team to win every game so i don't know why people are freaking out about losing to a decent Memphis team. I guess its because bama is looking so good people are putting more pressure on AU matching that hype. I thought there were some positives out of the Memphis game like Chris Moore, Broome and Dylan came on at the end which we gotta have those guys to be successful. Our guys never quit playing and i liked the heart they had to stay in the game when it could have gotten out of hand. I also thought KD played pretty well outside of taking too many shots but as always take the good with the bad with KD. 

I guess my biggest thing going forward is that we need to get Tre back involved and give Westry some minutes without needing to be the primary ball handler. Tre must be showing he is not ready in practice of something cause he looked good enough in early season play to keep trying him out. And its not like Zep or Westry are slam dunk back up options at PG...if one of those were killing it i have no issue with developing Tre more. I'm also hoping here that Westry at a not PG position would give him better shooting opportunities and that will improve he outside shooting. Right now he looks waaaay off from deep. Not sure you see that from good shooters very often. 

Also need to figure out why our defense was sooo bad and how to improve that. We stopped a great PG that St Louis had but no such luck with Memphis. I thought our bigs got out of position too much opening lanes to the basket. Memphis has really athletic big men so they were able to expose Cardwell and Broome away from the basket a bit. Maybe we don't switch off as much but i'm sure this will give the coaches some great tape to show our weaknesses and they will have a plan to address. 

Unfortunately more loses in store this year. We don't have NBA level players on this team right now and thats something we are use to having over the last 5 years or so. Its noticeable when those guys are missing. And the top half of the SEC is going to be really hard to crack with how this team stands today. Well maybe i should say top 5 will be hard to crack. Kentucky, Bama, and Tenn all look really good and State is throwing up some crazy good defensive stats.