JwgreDeux

I think we will see a mixture. If I was coaching against us, I would stay mostly in a zone. Ideally switching in and out of man. Mix in periods of press as well. We we are too athletic at the wing position for most teams to be able to match up in man. Also our freshman don't have to think as much in man and are freer to just play. Zone slows them down and makes them think through what they are doing, at least for now. They will improve against it.

After a series of early turnovers, CBP went to the bench to Johnson and Dunans. Here is their second possession following the series outlined above. They are running the same set, to the other side of the floor, a guard weave to see how the zone reacts: Dunans and Johnson exchange passes, and then Dunans dribbles towards Lang. Lang and Dunans exchange passes (instead of weave) and Spencer comes out to screen the defender guarding Dunans (exactly like the first series we broke down): The next frame is where we will see the difference begin. Dunans drives to his left across the face of the zone, Johnson holds his ground, instead of coming to Dunans for a weave, and Dunans probes the defense (causing the zone defenders to shift, one of the back defenders is forced to shift upwards to cover Johnson): Next Johnson slides to the corner open area: Dunans passes the ball and slides out to the wing spot, but Johnson turns down the shot: Instead he drives to the short corner, shifting and turning the zone: He beats #15, who tried to come off of Dunans, but was late and gets inside the zone, finding Spencer. The only defender is caught trying to guard two men: Spencer finishes for 2: Same concept, same set, but the veterans understood the movement against a zone a little bit better and helped get a few buckets that got the team going. Harper and Purifoy would both go on to play good games, but their youth was visible early in this one. Hopefully they learn from the veterans on how to move against a zone.

After some of the discussion the last two games about playing against a zone defense, I went back and watched most of our first two games and have broken down two possessions that I hope help show what CBP wants this team to try to do against a zone. There are two ways to attack a zone, first is over the top, and second is from within. In the first game we attacked over the top and were successful at shooting a high percentage. In our second game against Georgia St. we attempted to attack the zone over the top early, but Brown, Heron, and Lang all missed those attempts. Then we started trying to attack from within. We struggled to do so, trying to throw and entry pass to the elbow from the point on multiple possessions. This shows Harper pointing at where the wanted Purifoy to be on the floor and Purifoy pointing to Harper to lob the pass in instead of a bounce pass. The redline showing where the ball ended up, as a turnover out of bounds. Next we switched from an entry pass to the elbow to a weave action around the top of the key to see how the zone reacted: After a passing exchange from Harper to Brown and back, Smith comes to the extended elbow to screen the zone defender guarding Harper: Harper drives to his right and hands off to Heron on a weave back towards the top of the key (with Brown heading towards Heron for another weave), as the zone defenders pass off to each other: Heron hands off to Brown for another weave exchange at the top of the key as Brown attempts to penetrate with all 5 defenders keyed on him : Brown loses his footing as he tries to stop his drive with the zone closing on him: notice how well the zone has prevented any attacks to the basket, and no wing has rotated towards an open area to be ready for a shot. The turn over leads to a run out and easy points for Ga St. At this point in the game our only points are from transition and free throws. How we did it right in next post.

Preview: Here is a decent article about our game this evening: http://www.al.com/auburnbasketball/index.ssf/2016/11/auburn_basketball_eastern_kent.html#incart_river_index Some initial thoughts: This game is about one thing, Auburn, period. Eastern doesn't have the roster to stay in this game, unless we allow it. They don't have a size or skill advantage, in fact, we have both, and we're at home. Eastern does have a nice one two punch in their post player Mayo #10 and their pg Gist #2. However, Mayo is a 6'9" stretch four playing center, and Gist might be smaller than Harper. Gist can break guys down and loves to drive and draw fouls, so this will be a test for our bigs to avoid foul trouble early in the game. Our perimeter defense should be too much for Eastern to handle for a full game, even if Mayo has a good night. Eastern has scored 97 in one of their games, but they gave up 87 in that same game, which leads me to my next point. Easter gives up a lot of points, to the tune of 84 per game, not including the 71 they gave up in an exhibition to Georgetown....College (Kentucky) a NAIA program. Bottom Line: We should win. The only way it is close is if we don't play hard. Are our boys dreaming of their upcoming trip to Cancun or are they salivating over the chance to tee off on an undermanned squad? We shall see. Vegas line: Auburn -15 Tip time : 8pm SEC Network

Our wings did attack and cause some fouls, but their bigs picked up a couple of bad fouls on a moving screen and while trying to post up. Our wings attacking will need to be a tactic we use to combat the other teams size all season. Regarding the zone offense. I actually prefer Pearls approach to let them have a more free flow to the offense. It will improve game by game with chemistry. Running a set, allows the zone to get setup and that is when it is most effective. I believe we will see some zone in almost every game as few teams are deep enough to guard all of our wings in man for a full game. I understand the thought of putting Johnson in with Harper, but Harper would not be as effective of a scorer from the 2 spot. Different skill set, movement without the ball, guarded by a bigger man, more confined options. Both are true points, we are in good shape there.

We out rebounded them, but they were similar in size to us. Also, one of their primary post players was in foul trouble most of the game. Spencer and Smith have to be better. Often times attempting to block a shot takes them out of rebounding position. Have to improve this here. I doubt we see see much of shaper and Johnson at the same time considering how deep we are at the wings. Johnson is a quality back up, but Harper showed that he can switch gears from fasciltator to scorer if needed. By the way, this is the first time Bruce has been 2-0 at Auburn, and like the first time we have been 2-0 in six years I think.

Our sloppiness and poor shooting percentage was due in part to the defense that Ga St played. They get after it on defense. I knew they would be on us early, and our youth would show, the question coming into this match upwas what would our intensity look like. This group answered the bell. Harper and Johnson really impressed, and Purifoy was one free throw away from a 20 point night. One additional thought, Brown needs more shot attempts. Shooters need shots, there's no way around it. Many of our wings, who slash to the basket, don't need 10 attempts, but Brown does.

Defense, defense and more defense. Man, this group gets after you on defense. Georgia State can guard too and we experienced a less than stellar offensive night, but or defense was air tight on the perimeter. Also, rebounding was improved. The posts still have to pick it up, Smith and Spencer combined for 5! But thankfully almost every wing player had 5 each with Heron leading the team with 8. Dunnans was back to his old self, filling in the gaps, a few of everything. That was good to see and a good sign going forward Speaking of good signs going forward, Harper does not play like a freshman. He took over a portion of each half when it was needed and played great defense as well. Brown and Heron never really got in rhythm, but Purifoy had a solid game and didn't just settle for jumpers. Spencer and Smith both stayed out of foul trouble for the most part and we had a comfortable win over a likely NCAA tourney team. This was not a display of clean offense, or high level execution, but it was a display of this groups grit and composure. Scoring 80 on an off night and playing that kind of defense is a great recipe. Harper was the best player on the floor tonight. McLemore quietly had a nice game. While Heron didn't finish on a few drives, it is still good to see his aggressiveness towards the rim. Also want to give the backup PG some credit, Johnson provided quality depth behind Harper. Did I mention the perimeter defense was good? I like this team. This will be a fun season.

Last thing I'll say about this game as we move on to Georgia Southern tonight, but overall I liked what I saw. On the size issue, I'm not worried about team pound the ball inside and score on us. We will guard the perimeter well enough to not let teams out score us, as we will score a lot of points most games. The area of concern I have is rebounding, giving up second chance points and not getting any ourselves can be a killer. Hopefully we see some improvement tonight.

I atributted the lull in the second half more to youth and chemistry than fatigue, but who knows. We did play 10 guys so fatigue shouldn't have been an issue except for Purifoy who played a lot of minutes.

A few observations from the game last night: I attended last night as I was eager to get a look at this bunch of Tigers and they did not disappoint. First think I noticed is LeRon Smith is smaller than I expected. He is not quite as thick as Horace Spencer and about the same height. He is less athletic than Horace and doesn't have great hands. That being said he is long and pretty athletic. Horace Spencer looked good, slightly thicker than last season and just as energetic and athletic as ever. He is our best interior defender, blocking shots, using good position, and making entry passes difficult. That being said he got into foul trouble again, and fouled out again. He has to get better at not fouling quickly as we can't win without him for long stretches. As far as size goes, Purifoy and McLemore were bigger in person than I expected. Both have strong solid builds and did well defending North Florida's post guys who were mostly in the 6-7 to 6-9 range. However they both found themselves out of position in numerous rebounding opportunities, including basic stuff like boxing out the right man on foul shots. We were out rebounded as a result of these issues. The good news is the positioning issues can be improved/corrected which will help tremendously, the bad news is they can't get bigger. Rebounding will be a season long struggle, there's no way around it, just have to do the best we can. Harper is as advertised. Fun to watch, lightning quick, composed and confident. I like this kid a ton. The backup played well as too, but Harper is the guy at the point for now. Heron played well. He did force a few shots when he attempted to attach the rim, but I don't mind that at all. We need an aggressive scorer who doesn't just settle for jump shots. Biggest surprise was Dunnans not playing the role or as much as I expected. He didn't start, and was basically a role player when he got in the game. He will still be relied on at times, but I expected him to be more involved in the offense (perhaps limited by an undisclosed injury?). Biggest take away: Brown can flat out shoot it. He had a good freshman campaign last year, but I expect big things from him during his stay at Auburn. His stroke is a thing of beauty, and he added a few off the dribble mid range pull ups last night to lead us in scoring. He lets the game come to him, understands floor spacing when he doesn't have the ball, and is very confident in his game. I don't want to over exaggerate, but he could be JJ Reddick type good. He deserved getting the start, and scored our first 6 points right out of the gate. He was comfortable putting the ball on the floor and seems to have developed his game significantly in the off-season. This team will be fun to watch. North Florida is not a cupcake, and we were up almost 30 at the half and the game was never in doubt. That being said, we could clean up our performance significantly in the turnovers and rebounding departments. Looking forward to watching these guys grow.

Some of the misses in other games have been overthrows, but this one appeared to be more on the receiver to me. It was not an overthrow, but was thrown to the inside of the receiver, away from the defender. The WR has to adjust to the ball on these deep balls. I agree with your overall point though, start hooking up here and look out.

I'm not sure if it was the pre-game exchange before the game or what, but it seemed like we finished that game with some serious fire.

After the way our D contained Watson in the Clemson game, I'm not too worried about this QB. As long we don't give up big plays we should be fine on D. Love to see the offense put up 30 points and put this thing away early.

Part of Franklin's success is due to the fact that he is rarely on the field. As such, the opponent does not dedicate is game-plan to stopping him. He works as a change of pace at times because the defense is game-planning on Sean White. I think JFIII has some great talents but the more we use him, the more others will game plan for him.

The lack of finishing drives is just as much due to poor execution as it is play calling or anything else. The goal line stand by LSU is a perfect example. On third down the Center and right guard doubled teamed a down lineman and the Right tackle and extra tight end double teamed another down lineman. This double double team led to a huge hole, that an LSU lineback flew through to hit Petway before he got going. I'm confident one of those linemen was responsible for that linebacker and missed their assignment. That leads to 4th and 1 and KJ as wildcat. He runs the read and goes behind the left tackle, attacking the goal line and is stuffed by two LSU defenders. If you watch the playback, there are no defenders outside the tacklebox, and KJ had a very good chance to get in if he took it outside around the end. I expect the execution to get better as this team matures.

This week Tony Stevens had his hands on two balls on plays in the redzone. One was a jump-ball in the endzone, and the other was a very nice throw from SW that would have gotten the ball to the 2 yard line or so. But agreed we need to throw it more down there, and on first down in general.

I agree Sean White played well, but he had a few opportunities to make some throws that he chose not to attempt and ate the ball. One was in the redzone as he was rolling left and ended up taking a 6-7 yard sack. I think it was K.Davis that started in the slot and ran a post to the back corner of the endzone, and beat his man and was open (not wide open), and Sean seemed to look to him and just didn't pull the trigger. I am all for protecting the ball, but he needs to trust himself and let that ball go.

Most of the big runs have been because a linebacker or safety missed a run fit. This week in particular, I saw Neal miss a run fit badly, he wasn't blocked at all, did not fill a hole and Fornette went for 20 or so.

IF their offensive out put is similar to Clemson's then we win this game. We defended Clemson very well, only getting beat on a handful of back shoulder throws. Additionally, Carlton Davis is a great corner, I hope he is the guy in the one on one match-ups. I think our secondary holds up well in this game, T.Knight is only completing 55% of his passes.