Not Sure What to Make of This Year's Team

[BHDAU1 240]

I tell you what, every time I start to feel like the team is coming together and improving they come out and play like garbage.  It seems to me that we might actually have a problem with how this team collectively handles external pressure from the media, fans, etc.  Just as soon as the pundits start buying into them and moving them up in the rankings, they lose.  They take ownership of the longest winning home winning streak over last weekend and then they lose Weds.  Earlier in the season they lost whenever they played a tough out of conference opponent on national tv.  This ATM loss was really a bad loss, not only in how many points Auburn was beat by, but it put us behind another game heading into the hardest part of the schedule with some tough away games.  I didn't care about the streak personally, but winning at home against a conference opponent they were supposed to beat was much more important.  Turnovers were a major problem along with a very crappy defensive effort against A&Ms guard and in general.  That on the heels of a guy scoring 30 on them last game as well!

 No one should score that many points against this team with how much Coach Pearl stresses defense and with Broome and Cardwell protecting the rim.  That is a very concerning factor to me.  You simply cannot let anyone score 30 freaking points on you, I don't care who it is, especially when Auburn is only scoring between 60 and 70 points a game on average.  Flanigan, Williams, and Zep have got to score more every game.  Why the hell did Williams only shoot 5 shots the entire freaking game? He played 28 mins and has got to man up and start being aggressive when no one else is scoring. He has shown some very good offensive skills in prior games, he just honestly seems scared to use them when we need him to.  Zep has taken several steps backwards with his shooting, he was a 16 or 17 points a game guy coming to AU and was like 40% from the 3 in college career.  Now AU is lucky to get 6 points out of him b/c as of right now he is averaging a pitiful 3.7 points per game....WOW that is even worse than I thought.  Flanigan has hit his ceiling I'm afraid, I hope I am wrong but that is what it seems like.  He was an NBA prospect before his injury because he was very good on defense and could score in traffic on offense.  He had the ability to drive past whoever was guarding him and get in the paint to either get two or get fouled. Now he settles for jump shots most of the time, is ice cold from the 3 point line most of the time, gets maybe 3 or 4 rebounds a game, and is averaging single digit points per game.  This is a far cry from what everyone was hoping for. 

With all that said, I still think this team could be compete for the SEC tourney title, maybe even season title, and go far in the NCAA tourney, but they better get their collective sh*t together really fast.  IMO, they need to find that confidence that all great teams have, that belief that if they play as hard as they can they can beat anyone.  Having that would do wonders for quite a few of the players who right now look and play scared.     

Edited January 27, 2023 by BHDAU1

[NoALtiger 3,849]

That’s quite a long post my friend lol. 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

How refreshing is it that we are disappointed in a team that is average?! For the better part of 50 years we were like LSU and South Carolina are this year - terrible. 
There is a lot that can be said, but it boils down to the same things we have seen all season: we are only as good as our defense, we take too many 3s, some players need to shoot more while others need to shoot less, the rotation still needs work, the ball movement is terrible at times (we just shoot 3s or 1v1 a lot), and the freshman class has really struggled. 
Like it or not, Bruce gives the players free rein to shoot pretty much whenever and wherever. That is one of the reasons why players want to play for him. 

[aucat 69]

WE may  be out of the ranking next week or early next month

[Mikey 16,566]

Watching our games against winning teams, (A&M, MSU, WVa, etc,) one thing is painfully obvious. Taken as a group, their players are better than our players. Regardless of the sport, when the other guys are better than your guys there's not a whole lot that can be done during the season.

Coach Pearl is putting them in good positions to win but you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip. In games against good teams the other team's players are simply better.

[KansasTiger 3,248]

Go out and replace our guards with better guards. The sad truth is very few of them should be starting on a top half SEC team. CBP didn't think our guards were a problem last year, maybe he finally will this year.

[BHDAU1 240]

My freshman year was 1999-00 at Auburn and due to changing majors after two years were completed, and several other things including a year off, my graduation year was 2005-2006.  Needless to say, during that time we went from having a team with NBA guys on it to losing records with Jeff Lebo and I went to every game that I possibly could have during that time.  I definitely can appreciate the fact that I am sore over a team that is pretty good relatively speaking.  It is true that we are spoiled now BUT there is nothing wrong with that.  Because of Pearl, we have a program that reloads instead of rebuilds. I grew up in Lexington, Ky. where they are expected to compete for titles every year at UK and that is normal. I think it's great that AU is becoming that way as well.

I honestly think that the guys we have could win the SEC, and that we are not behind anyone in talent in a large enough way to expect losses against anyone.  Every single guy on the floor for Auburn is capable of double digit points and playing very good defense, the problem has mostly been getting more than two of them to do it within the same game.  When that does happen we win almost every time.  The biggest question I have that I cant figure out is why they shoot so poorly during the games but during warmups they seem to hit everything.  I think there is just a group confidence problem, they have the talent. 

Edited January 29, 2023 by BHDAU1

[Scottie 124]

On 1/29/2023 at 10:26 AM, BHDAU1 said:

The biggest question I have that I cant figure out is why they shoot so poorly during the games but during warmups they seem to hit everything.  I think there is just a group confidence problem, they have the talent. 

Your answer is in your question my friend. Warmups don't equate to the game; when they are loose and comfortable, they make shots. When pressure builds, they miss shots. @Dual-Threat Rigby  and I had a nice chat about the team's glaring problems over the last couple of years in another thread. Most of our problems come down to guard play and "hero ball" in times of pressure.  The fact is that our guards aren't playing any well near as well as they should be at the moment; last game they shot a combined ~30%. They missed 29 shots last game while turning it over 10 times.

[autigeremt 6,592]

This team may surprise us before the season is over but I'm thinking round of 36, possibly sweet 16 if they get it going. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,653]

1 hour ago, Scottie said:

Your answer is in your question my friend. Warmups don't equate to the game; when they are loose and comfortable, they make shots. When pressure builds, they miss shots. @Dual-Threat Rigby  and I had a nice chat about the team's glaring problems over the last couple of years in another thread. Most of our problems come down to guard play and "hero ball" in times of pressure.  The fact is that our guards aren't playing any well near as well as they should be at the moment; last game they shot a combined ~30%. They missed 29 shots last game while turning it over 10 times.

We’re definitely in need of a guard who just processes quickly. He may not be a pure scorer, pure facilitator, etc. just someone who makes snap decisions. I think that’s the one thing Lior actually does better than 90% of the guard/wing stable. 

if you can put his “shoot or pass in under 4 seconds” style in a KD Johnson, you’d have a pretty formidable player 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,653]

That’s why I love Tre tbh. He’s still learning situations, the scheme, his minutes are up and down, but the ball just rarely sticks to his hand. 

[toddc 13,194]

In the games we’ve lost everyone seems to play stiff and not loose. The games we’ve won they played free and loose. They were having fun and playing with confidence. I don’t know how you correct that but I think CBP has it in himself to turn it around.

[Tiger 8,818]

19 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

That’s why I love Tre tbh. He’s still learning situations, the scheme, his minutes are up and down, but the ball just rarely sticks to his hand. 

Facts. I can work with a PG that's looking to keep the ball moving even if it's not directly leading to buckets. He's looking to get things going, big fan of Tre's game I think he can be a super solid rotational ball handler for us for the next few years. Our other undersized ball handlers pounding the rock for 15 seconds to take a contested look is killing us 

[gravejd 3,270]

I'm not as down on Green as others around here. But he has to be the worse last position PG in college basketball. From end of half to end of game I have zero confidence in him making the right decision with the ball. Outside of that i think he is great 90% of the time. But last possession i'm taking him out of the game at this point. 

[abw0004 10,110]

I will be at the Tennessee/Auburn game on Saturday.  I sure hope we show out.

[autan 737]

58 minutes ago, gravejd said:

 But last possession i'm taking him out of the game at this point. 

Unless he is fouled on last possession. He would make his free throws. Unfortunately it has to be a really bad foul or it won't be called.

[Gowebb11 9,313]

Losing guys like Okoro, Jabari, Kessler, and Cooper is difficult to do without stepping back a little. It’s a first world problem I never thought I would have to ‘endure’ for AU Basketball. This team turns the ball over too much and not getting much from Traore and Westry haven’t helped. I’m confident Bruce will get us right and play better down the stretch, and put us in yet another NCAA tournament. 

[BHDAU1 240]

20 hours ago, autan said:

Unless he is fouled on last possession. He would make his free throws. Unfortunately it has to be a really bad foul or it won't be called.

That is why he is the man with the ball at the end of just about every close game.  He is great at the free throw line, definitely the best on the team.  I agree with you on how tough it is for him to draw a foul though, maybe because he falls down a lot after he drives to the basket even when he is not fouled.  The refs see him on the floor just about every time he drives to the basket all game long, so they swallow their whistle. Someone else here mentioned how the team often resorts to playing "hero ball" in the closing minutes of close games.  You speak the truth!  Unfortunately, these guys in the critical minutes of a close game often abandon proper spacing, don't move enough without the ball to get open, pass to teammates in bad spots where they get trapped, and let one guy try to win the game.  There have been multiple times when a guy gets the ball with a great look but passes to someone else because they lack the confidence to take it.  These last two losses have been pretty tough to watch, particularly because the same issues the team has had in prior losses keep popping back up. 

In regards to the comment I made about how well they shoot in warm-ups versus the often terrible in-game shooting, I completely understand that there is a major difference between the two when you add game pressure and a defender. I should have worded it differently because my point is that there are a number of guys on this AU team that have great jump shots and near perfect mechanics that SHOULD translate over to a much better percentage of shots made per game, even when you consider how much game pressure and defense will affect it.  I think that the team has a confidence problem that is having a drastic effect on their ability to make shots, much more so than what game pressure and the opponent's defense does.

I just hope they can get squared away on the same page for this last stretch.  If anyone can make it happen Coach Pearl can.

[Scottie 124]

@BHDAU1, you're definitely hitting on the right topics, and we are all hitting the same target at different angles. There are a multitude of issues at the moment, even with the win last night. The "hero ball" (HB) I am discussing occurs throughout the game in attempts to change the energy of the game. HB works better with confidence rather than desperation, and it is the desperation low percentage shots that drive us wild. You have to be smart about when and how you throw a counter to their run.

[Rednilla 5,383]

I don't try to pretend to know a whole heck of a lot about basketball, but I know a little something about teams and teamwork, and I really don't think we're that far away from being good enough to play with anyone in the country. It's just maddening because the team is so infrequently hitting on all cylinders that we see the potential in beating overmatched opponents, but then get to watch things fall apart when the spotlight gets put upon them.

That having been said, what I've learned from watching college basketball for the last couple of decades is that teams like this one will sometimes come together and get hot at just the right moment. That's what happened with our Final Four team. Not saying it'll happen again this year, just sayin' that we have the potential.