Rednilla

Ooh, that's a bit troubling. I wasn't meaning that 25 was our year, but that the program would be out of the hole Harsin dug us into by then. But the 10 wins bit was talking about what I see as our ceiling this year.

No "yeah, but". Just acknowledging that it wasn't all on him. He did nothing to make the situation better, which *is* on him, but there was more going wrong in Auburn athletics at the time than just Harsin. That's all I was saying.

I didn't mean to say we would necessarily hit the mark of 10 wins with a bowl victory, only that it's not at all unattainable.

In fairness, they didn't have a lot of booster support, so I think they reverted to their small school thought process because they were fighting such an uphill battle. That hire was an unmitigated disaster from beginning to end. I blame Allen Greene.

I know this was a response to a misunderstood joke, but I like the bit, so I'm going to respond to it. I didn't think it was a 3-5 year job in any way except for getting us fully back to national prominence, but I didn't realize Hugh was going to have to do so much work in recruiting to get us back there. Let it be clear, the man worked tirelessly this past season re-engaging with high school coaching contacts in order to reopen the lanes of recruiting over our footprint area, and the groundwork that has been established will serve us exceedingly well for years to come. It's still utterly befuddling how magnanimously Bryan Harsin screwed up our football program, and now, having full perspective on what his tenure meant for Auburn football, I shake my head that I bought in for the time that I did, even though I do feel I have an excuse. The last time we spoke, my friend who was the connection to Harsin's staff seemed to be trying to convince me to stand by him still, saying I wasn't one of the typical Aubs who couldn't see how much work Harsin put in, and while I don't doubt that he gave it legitimately his best shot, it's clear to see he was in over his head. He didn't get even a salt lick of support from TPTB, so it's not really a fair situation to judge him on, but he was reverting to full Boise on us. To hear my friend tell it, because Hars put a couple of players from his Boise teams in the NFL, their standard is just as good as ours. I think I may have lost the friendship when I explained, as gently as I could, that peak Auburn does more than put a couple of random guys in The League. But as to the job Freeze is doing, honestly, he's doing about as I expected him to do, though his challenge was greater than I understood when he was hired. That 3-5 years until we're competing for championships is still in order, though we are on track to meet the early end of it due to the influence of the portal. I don't think there's a whole lot of chance that we get ahead of schedule and legitimately find ourselves in the hunt for the playoffs this season, but 10 wins (with a bowl victory) doesn't seem too far out of bounds. Of course, for next year (2025) to be our year, we'll need one of the young QBs to step up, but we do, at least, have a few seemingly capable options there who will get at least one full season in the offense before taking over.

To be fair, I knew you weren't specifically talking about me because I haven't been talking on the subject. I was going to bat for those in my position... but then, I really don't know what, exactly, is being said about this except for what's on this board. He's supposed to be the best WR in the portal this round, but that doesn't mean we're dealing with the next Randy Moss here, it just means he's the best we could reasonably have hoped to add to the WR room in the portal. That said, you're not wrong that we should be slow to put great expectations on this year's team. I prefer to look at it as a floor/ceiling type of deal... but 7 wins is the absolute floor for this team, IMHO, and that's only if we suffer key injuries. I don't think we're a true playoff contender, but I think we're good enough that we'll get some hype so long as we aren't too slow out of the gate, and with just a touch of Auburn magic we could be right in the thick of things. So no, don't put lofty expectations on us, but don't count us out, either.

Getting Lambert doesn't in and of itself transform the team, but it adds quality experience to the WR corps to go along with the influx of talented freshmen we signed. Combined with the other additions to the team, I don't think it's unfair to say the unit has been transformed. How many new starters will we have? How many additions to the 2-deep? The question is whether the transformation is a healthy one. I refuse to enter this season with my expectations set at a 7-win year because I do think we'll be better than that. But apparently it's a bad thing for me, a moderator, to lead a conversation suggesting that getting Lambert completes (or at least furthers) a transformation of the team we had last year. Heaven forbid that we think a better roster should lead to better results and try to encourage Auburn fans to be positive about the coming season...

That didn't happen because of basketball, brother...

This is going to either be a home run hire or it's going to end ugly, but I love the story of the daughter only relenting to wear the colors of her dad's employer with Kentucky socks underneath. I would have gone with underwear and undershirt to protect the vital areas from corruption, but it's the thought that counts.

Have you heard somewhere that Bruce is going to alter his strategy? Because I would think that with the number of fouls we commit playing Bruceball defense, having that kind of depth is kind of necessary to keep guys from fouling out.

You act as if UK sh*ts gold bricks and farts rainbows. Walk-on? I would ask for some of what you're smoking, but you've got some mad paranoia going on. Bruce will retire as an Auburn Tiger. Of that, I am virtually certain.

No. You're saying Bruce has done a good enough job that he should have a loud voice in who his successor will be. It's a little difficult to know how much of the job Steven has done should be attributed to his father for you to be able to say that CSP has done such a great job for the program. Now, I don't mind him being given a courtesy interview if that will make Bruce happy, but Auburn should never hire an assistant basketball coach to take over as head basketball coach. If Steven really thinks he's got the chops to take over for his dad, then he needs to take a head coaching job at a smaller program and build it up some on his own. That's the only way he's going to really know if he can handle the position of head coach, and he doesn't deserve the opportunity to learn it without his dad for the first time while at Auburn.

No, it still is. It's just going to go longer despite already being long enough.

Tomorrow, Feb 10 2024, will be 28 years to the day since the last time Auburn beat Florida in basketball in Gainesville. I'd say 28 years is long enough.

That's a lot of words to highlight a single quote from the game commentator, but I'll take it.

Ah. Well, no worries, I just thought it was odd. If this works out, maybe we should make it a tradition, starting the game thread the day before. In any case, I feel pretty good about this one now, with Nate Oates (for brains) talking smack about Neville Arena. Like he really needed to give KD Johnson a reason to get more fired up...

Why was the game thread started a full 24 hours before tipoff?

I, for one, absolutely LOVE this and think Oates is a frickin' dumbass for saying it. Bulletin board material is much appreciated.

Amazing what a good second half can do for the confidence in your team, no?

Maybe, I don't know, but does that mean they will be clearly better than us? For one thing, depth matters, but it's possible that DeBoer's system doesn't work out so well with the players that stick around. A head coaching change and the exit of about half the roster makes for a lot of questions in T-town.

How did I miss this pickup? This is freakin' MASSIVE!!! It's exactly the piece we had to have to be competitive offensively next season. I don't know, maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I think Thorne can be what we need to have a good season with a better supporting cast... and the WRs we signed should provide that for him. Lewis appears to be the beef we need to shore up O-line issues, and the return of all our RBs means we're stout there, as well. Naturally, I always seem to overestimate Auburn's chances (though I had us with 7-8 wins last year preseason, and if not for two huge disappointments that should have been avoided...), but from where I'm sittin', I don't think double-digit wins is off the table for us this year. I don't know what Oklahoma has coming back, but UGA is the only team we play that should be clearly better than us, talent-wise, besides possibly the Sooners, so 10-2 isn't unreasonable **IF** I'm right about Thorne.

Man, why ya gotta down the Dawgs? Mississippi State is a fellow land-grant university (i.e. cow college), and having visited there when a friend was in grad school, Starkville really isn't all that dissimilar from Auburn. It's smaller, and the stadium is smaller, and we smashed them on the weekend I visited, but the people (and not just the ones who were hosting me) were friendly before, during, and after, just like I've heard many opponents say of Auburn regardless of the outcome of the game. Now, granted, this was before 2010, and I understand there have been some misgivings between the two fan bases since the Cam fiasco, but I've always considered Miss State to be somewhat of a brothers-in-arms institution to our beloved Auburn.

Jaylin is one of the guys I was talking about. The other is Chad Baker, who strikes me as more the prototypical 3, while Jaylin is kind of a tweener between 3 and 4, but my comment was less about playing the particular role that Chuma did and more about being a breakout star whose season propels him to The League. Johni can't be that guy because he already got his first serious look from the NBA last summer; I don't think Aden is close enough to being ready that a great year would make him leave; and while Tre might be able to stick because of his size and defensive abilities, he's not flashy enough to think that he'd play his way into first-round consideration this year.

I'm not sure that Bruce's teams might not be better without a "true star". Maybe I'm remembering things wrong, but it seems like Chuma, the only player from the team that made the Final Four run who has become a star in the NBA, more grew into his role as a star than he was a surefire prospect, like Jabari and Okoro, and I think we've got at least a couple of players who could be that guy this year. But it's got to come about a little more organically, I think, for us to make a run in March/April. The players need to rely upon each other and pick each other up, like we've been doing, so that opponents won't be able to focus on any one player and shut us down.

I will preface this by admitting that I know little to nothing about the NBA, as I've not really cared to watch since Michael Jordan retired (the second time), and that was before the age where I could appreciate exactly how good NBA players are, which means that my primary exposure to NBA talent has been the guys Bruce has brought in, so somebody please correct me if I'm seeing things too orange and blue (which is admittedly fairly likely), but Jaylin seems to have worked his way into being a legitimate NBA prospect. I mean, I haven't seen him shoot much from NBA range 3s, but he's got a good 3-point stroke, and really seems to have a well-rounded game that could translate at the next level. He's obviously not Jabari because he doesn't have the same size, and as much as he's refined his shot well, he doesn't have the sweet stroke that JSJ did/does (at least, I presume he's still doing well in Houston, anyway). But I'd think Jaylin would be getting a serious look at least as a backup at the next level, because he's listed at 6'8 (and didn't seem more than 3 inches shorter than Jabari, whose official NBA height is 6'11). But, then, again, I don't really know. Would he be considered a bit of a tweener, a small 4/slow 3? And what about Broome? I know he didn't get a favorable enough report from the NBA workouts last summer to leave, but has he improved his game enough to be considered in the first round? If we have the great season we're all hoping to have, might he forego his last year even if he hasn't moved up the draft boards due to the seniors moving on? Then you think about our pair of point guards, one a five-star and the other matching him just about step for step. What are the chances they end up in the NBA, whether after an amazing run that propels them to it this year or after another year or two? That seems a bit more iffy for me because of the lack of size. Speaking of size, what about Denver Jones as a long 2? Could he earn a roster spot in the NBA? What about Chad Baker? We saw him make a huge impact off the bench a couple of games ago, and he's certainly got the length to get a solid look, I would think, if he can be more consistent. And how about Dylan Cardwell? About the only kind of shot he can make is a dunk... Still, he's got pretty good size, at least decent rebounding, and better-than-decent shot-blocking skills, plus the energy of a naked 3-year-old running loose in a supermarket... but is there any chance in hell all that adds up to NBA backup potential? We may or may not have any lurking NBA superstars on the team, but I'm curious what those who know more about basketball than me (which is probably a fair percentage of the board) think of our guys' prospects for playing at the next level.