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Opposite. Flanigan is a necessary piece if the goal is a title. He needs time to work out the kinks. If the goal is to be good, give his minutes away. There is zero question he lifts the team’s ceiling though.

I guess I don't know what you mean "with regularity." Against Vandy, Wen and KD were a combined 3 for 7 from three. The non-Jabari players on the team were 4 for 12 (33%); the guards were 4 for 10. That's a good night from deep. Against UF, Wen and KD had rough nights. 0 for 8. Only four guys took a three, and Smith/Kessler were a combined 5 for 6. I'll bet both guards look better against Ole Miss. BUT, agree to disagree. Only time will tell who is right. I think we're fine. I think the team is coming out of a slump, and the offensive guard play will be good. Not great but good with "great" coming on the defensive end and in the front court's offense.

No one makes the Final Four in spite of their guard play. We won't be an exception. We don't need those guys to carry the scoring load, but if they don't play well, we'll get beat in the tournament. I continue to say, it's just protecting the ball. Our defensive intensity is the calling card with Zep, Flanigan, and KD on the ball with Kessler, Smith, and Cardwell on the backline. We're finding better ways to get the ball in Jabari's hands, but late clock, he's not a creator. If we get him the ball too early in the clock, they're just going to double the ball out of his hands. At this point in his development, he's not a good enough ball handler to run the pick and roll game so that's a nonstarter. If you go to the iso on the nail like the Mavs did with Dirk, #1 you need immaculate floor spacing and #2 you need Jabari to be a better passer than we've seen to this point. He's unbelievable, but playmaking out of that elbow post takes reps. It took Dirk a decade to perfect it. We are better off running the high screen with Wen and Kessler with Jabari on the weak side. If his man comes unglued, it's an automatic feed to your best player. If he doesn't, there will be space for Kessler on the roll (as there was at UF). The execution was just a liiiiiittle off. I'm glad we're getting late game, crunch time reps to work those reads out. It almost doesn't matter what the outcome is.

Actually, it's KD messing up the spacing (somewhat). You can see it in the first still. He's supposed to be parked in the corner. On the playside, you want a guy roughly where Flanigan/KD are on the elbow, a guy in the corner, and you bring Jabari up from the corner so that his man can't help on the backside of the play. It wasn't a terrible play, but we didn't foresee them ducking the screen and walling off Wen. Which brought their length into the play because he didn't feel like he had an angle for the pass to Kessler over the top. Good job by Mike White mixing up the defense on the high screen.

We were tied 77-77 with 58 second remaining at Bama. The only difference between that game and Arkansas or Florida is that we got late game stops and hit FTs. Hell, expand that to include UGA and Mizzou. We trailed by two inside a minute in Athens... got a bucket, a stop, and a bucket to win. We trailed by one inside two minutes in Columbia... hoop plus the foul, steal, bucket to all but put the game away. If Wendell hits a three in Fayetteville or finds an angle on the pass to Kessler in Gainesville, those games go in the same bucket as Tuscaloosa. The team isn't regressing. If anything, they look like they are starting to play better after a (typical) late January/early February lull. We went into a team-wide shooting slump, but we're shooting 44.4% from three as a team over the last two games. We also shot 82.6% from the FT line (on 46 attempts) as a team over the same two games. That's encouraging. The only issue I actually see is taking care of the ball. Green had seven turnovers against Arkansas; Jabari had four turnovers against A&M; Flanigan had six turnovers against Vandy; and KD had five turnovers against UF. Those are tough numbers and coming from different guys each night. If we value the ball better collectively, everything else is fine. Making teams operate against our halfcourt defense basically means we win.

I definitely think it's an overreaction. People underrate how hard it is to win on the road, and people tend to be harder on their own team. It's easy to see the home/road effect if you look at another team that everyone agrees is a national title contender. Let's use Kentucky, they are 16-0 at home, and just over .500 on the road (5-4). In true road games, they have dropped games to Duke, LSU, Auburn and Tennessee. Outside of the Kansas game (which might be the best performance by any team in a single game all year), they have wins over South Carolina, Bama, TAMU, and Vandy. Looking at the Tennessee home/away split shows the impact of the home/road thing. They beat UT by 28 at home; they lost by 13 (and trailed by 20) on the road. That's life on the road. UK is likely to lose at least one more this year because they have road trips to Arkansas and Florida ahead. Auburn and Kentucky are the only teams in the SEC with winning road records this year. That's it. There are three teams with unbeaten records at home (Auburn, UK, and UT) and one more (Arkansas) with only one home loss all season... a weird 1-pont loss to Vandy. There are no road games in the tournament. The fact that we're in every game is a bigger deal than whether we lost two one possession games on the road.

Love his defensive intensity. I hope he’s not gun shy. Three shot attempts in two games. We need him to be a little more aggressive than that, but if he defends like he has and takes care of the ball, he fits with this team. Defense travels. And he’s an under appreciated part of our defense.

One double OT loss in a neutral site game against a ranked opponent. One OT loss against a ranked opponent. One one-point loss against a good team in a gym we haven’t won in since Cliff Ellis. This team’s defense and toughness make us a brutal out. Not once all season have we let someone off the hook and just stopped competing. That’s amazing. UF is a bad matchup for us because Castleton neutralizes so much of what Kessler does, and their length on the perimeter bothers us. We actually matchup better with UT and their smaller guards. It’ll still be tough to win there, but they won’t bother us as much defensively.

Three by Flanigan and three by Jabari off the offensive rebound. One of those has to go down.

Jaylin Simpson isn't buried on the depth chart.

Nah. I meant playing small with Green, Zep, and KD.

If I had to compete with Pearl players against @cole256's lineup, I'd have to look for wing matchups and shooting. I'd start with Sharife at PG. He's a terrible defender, but Harp can't stay in front of him either so that gives me (1) the best passer Pearl has ever had by a wide margin and (2) a PG living in the lane. After that, I need floor spacing. I'd go with KT Harrell for sure because he also had some size at 6'3" or 6'4". I favor picking Okoro because he's a dog defensively and thick enough to push Smith off the nail. Jabari can get his shot based on the height advantage, but it's gonna be a struggle. I want Wiley as my designated screener/diver/rebounder. Plus, I can play Isaac in the dunker's spot off the Cooper/Wiley pick and roll action. Last spot, I want Samir Doughty over Bryce. Bryce was a better on ball defender, but against that group, we're not worried about ball pressure. We're trying to survive on the glass without giving up shooting. Then, we're going to run the dog out of that team of bigs. We're not getting a lot of stops, but we're trading their 2s for our 3s. I don't think this team beats that team best of 7, but they present mismatches enough to win a few. Cooper Harrell Doughty Okoro Wiley

I love Devin's energy and all, but even this version of Allen is one of the best perimeter defenders in the country. It's not a coincidence that we left him on the floor against Mizzou despite his offensive struggles. He's hell on the defensive end. Plus, there's just more upside to his offensive game. Devin is a streak shooter and a dunker. Nothing else. Flanigan has had multiple double-figure scoring games in SEC play, and he provides the possibility of weakside playmaking. I love what Devin brings to the team, but there's a reason he's taken a backseat to Allen the last two years. If I'm tweaking that five for anyone, it's Zep. He's the best on-ball defender in the SEC, and he's good enough as a shooter (though a reluctant shooter) to play off ball without hurting our spacing.

This year is pretty straightforward if there’s no subbing allowed. Green, Johnson, Flanigan, Smith, and Kessler gives you the best mix of offense/defense. That’s why those five lead in minutes (since Flan’s return). That’s my five.

I had more fun playing against football players in pickup games. They could ball. CT and Marcus McNeill played on a rec team that won the title around 2002ish. Will Herring was a whiner on the basketball court though.

You’re so so touchy. That’s why I blocked your posts years ago. No one said Brewer wouldn’t have helped. I just said we were more than Brewer away from competing for a title. And we were. The gap between him and Monroe was wide, but not THAT wide. And in terms of the Cuse game, Monroe hit four 3s. Jamie wouldn’t have out produced him in that game. PLUS, Jamie would’ve occupied Marquis’ spot in the middle of the 2-3 OR would’ve hurt our floor spacing. We made the crazy run to get back into that game by playing small with Bird, Monroe, and Watson playing around Quis with Davis in the dunker position.

I like all the guys we’re landing, but the reality is, we’ve whiffed at OL and WR. With the talent on had, those misses probably cap this team out at seven wins. That’s just kinda how it is. We don’t have threats outside, and we don’t have the line to create a dominant run game. It’s gonna be a struggle to score all season.

I was one of like 25 Auburn students at that game! It was at the end of spring break. My roommate and I had driven to NYC to hang out with some friends up there. When we best Wake, we decided to drive up to Albany. This whole “Auburn fans travel for basketball”? That wasn’t a thing then. Instead of 25% for each team. It was like 25% OU, 20% Butler, 5% Auburn, and 50% Syracuse. That was a good team. It was more than Jamie away, but I get the sentiment. They were right at the tipping point of finding something. Jamie wasn’t a good enough shooter. Playing him with Kyle Davis and Marco Killingsworth would’ve killed the space Marquis needed to operate.

The thing I'd quibble with is the claim that Auburn and MSU or Mizzou or Vandy are "trying to accomplish the same goal." That's just wrong. In some abstract way, I suppose everyone is trying to win 'em all, but in reality, most coaches set goals the way Sam Pittman did at Arkansas. Getting ranked. Winning against a ranked team. Making a bowl game. Those are big accomplishments for most programs, but that's a baseline assumption at Auburn. So we fundamentally have different goals. Now, like you said, we also have different resources, but I do think Auburn is one of the places where the goals outstrip (or at least stretch very thin) the resources. It's a tougher job than Kentucky or Mizzou or Mississippi State or Ole Miss or similar places. Those spots all have plus plus resources for programs that, when you get them on truth serum, want to win 7-8 games and a bowl game for a GOOD season. Winning seven games consistently at Auburn will get you fired, and Auburn does not have plus plus resources for a program that wants to win 9-11 games and a post season game every year.

Did you even watch us play this year? The OL Gus left was a joke. Maybe you could critique the current staff for underestimating the need, but denying the need is straight up foolish. Even for you.

I certainly didn't have any issue offering and signing Gatewood or giving him an opportunity to win the QB job. Once we saw him though, we should've had the awareness to move him. Whether at AU or UK, I've never seen him look comfortable at QB. It's fine to take a flyer on a freak athlete at QB, but you should be able to scout him once you see it in practice. If he's not a QB, don't waste time. Move him. If he doesn't want to do that, move on.

Big for what? I love Brahms' mind and his work ethic. I don't love Brahms' ability to block other large people from hitting the QB or RB in the backfield.

Both guys struggling to find a rhythm after injuries. Encouraging to see Okoro back in the starting lineup the last couple games, but he's shooting like crap. Plus, they have multiple other guys out. Not sure the Cavs even know their rotation when everyone is available.

You said Mason has played three-deep at most positions. Whether you used the word rotation or not, that’s what you said. In reality, we’re playing three-deep at zero positions. At multiple positions, we’re not taking the starter off the field. Even when we do rotate, it’s limited snaps. Wooten/Pappoe have a time share. Hall, Moultry, and Leota share two positions roughly evenly. Etc.