johnjacob

20 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

He's had two years at LSU and their entire roster transferred before he came. They have a litany of active violations against them. 

Also, not that I'm trying to make a real equivalency here, but they finished with almost the exact same record last year as Pearl had in his first seasons, and already have as many wins now as Pearl had in his second season. They also have 2 more Quad 1 wins than we have right now.... All that being said, there's absolutely no way to judge how they've performed so far in a fair light, but he's a guy that had a high stock as a coaching prospect, and that'd be the type of dude we should have as our most realistic option, unless something goes terribly wrong 

He has done better than I thought he would and I think he is a good coach, but LSU's roster was decimated after Wade. LSU should be thrilled with where they are considering. 

15 hours ago, tigeraddikt said:

What type of HC will Auburn be able to attract when Bruce hangs it up? I feel like he wants to set Steven up for the succession, but unless SP spreads his wings and takes another smaller HC gig beforehand (and does well), I don’t really see that happening. Where that leaves Auburn is: where do you go from Bruce? Does AU revert back to the “promising” mid-major HC route, which Lebo and Barbee both were? Can Auburn attract a proven championship caliber HC? What about someone like Bucky if he were available?

it’s a bit knee-jerk, as I think Pettiford will be the most skilled game-ready Freshman guard that Bruce will have ever brought in. But between the recruiting misses, in-game coaching issues, teams that lack focus away from home, lack of post season mojo since 2019, and questionable roster management methods, I’m ready/willing to peek ahead.

I honestly feel like the most enduring legacy Bruce will have ever left AU (future perfect tense alert) is turning the Arena into a monster home court advantage. (That pre-supposes he does not win a NCAA tourney.) He’s been a perfect ambassador for the school, and he alone rebuilt the program. He deserves eternal gratitude from AU fans, but to me, he has stagnated and under-achieved the past few years, with the league only getting tougher.

He does not need to spread his wings. Did the Duke HC spread his wings?-No. Steven knows the program and what it takes to win at AU that is most important. Bring in a coach that does not know that and we get a Lebo or Barbee again. They failed because they did not know how to win at AU. They won at other places, but every job is not the same. Fit is important. There are some great coaches that have struggled at programs, because they were not "fits'. We are seeing that right now at UCLA. Cronin is a great coach and he has had some early success at UCLA, but this season the team is struggling because his blue collar style does not mesh well with the glitzy Los Angeles vibe. It will be interesting to see if he can will that program back to the early success he has had there. A coach can bring a blue collar attitude to UCLA, but he has got to play a more NBA friendly style and be a better salesman than what Cronin is. Cronin is Midwest through and through. 

2 hours ago, arktiger1975 said:

Sounds like he is aware of the grumbling!

I am sure he is grumbling too. He knows how good this team can be when they run things like they are coached to do. 

Team is good, but often when a team lacking strong players leadership gets on a roll they get full of themselves and forget what got them on the roll of wins. When I coached this was often a problem after a good start unless the team had an alpha leader.  It also has not helped that Williams has gone back to being passive and has not played as well. CMO's lack of consistency at the 3 is not good, because he is one of the few vocal leaders, but with him not being a threat to score has caused coach to limit his play. The team needs him and Williams to step it up and bring consistent, confident play every game. If CMO can just make 2-3 3 pointers per game it would be huge, but his shooting form has been off with leaning to one side. Aden has been jumping too far forward on his threes and needs to work on jumping straight up on his jumpers. Coach should also consider using some double post screens to get some easy bank shots near the paint. 

4 minutes ago, CCTAU said:

You think they’ve ever practiced that? It might work.

Coach has played them together before for a short stretch with Broome at the 4 and it worked great. 

I love coach P but running a super hard practice two days before a rivalry game is not a good idea, because our team is tired now and missing jumpers due to tired legs. They should have done more walk through on what they wanted to do and kept those legs fresh. Hopefully if we fall it motivates the players for the rest of the season. 

10 hours ago, Dunndone414 said:

Personal opinion - if we keep playing this well Kessler is a sure fire first round pick and leaves. But landing Kessler for another season would arguably be better than any possible high school recruit. It's effectively landing a 5-star center without any downside risk of a bust. 

Of course unexpected attrition is a fact of CBB now, but with the guards we may have coming back we are only a frontcourt piece or two away from being a contender again next season. 

Kessler won't be here next season. He will go first round. Cardwell is ready to step up and Stretch I believe is redshirting this season so AU will have a 5 rotation that is solid. I think Cardwell will keep getting better. AU will need to replace Smith unless Coach P thinks Moore could spell Jaylin at the four, but I am not confident in that. 

I wonder if Coach is having Heron flashbacks? Remember how much he sulked his last season when the offense did not end with him shooting?

On 8/19/2021 at 4:35 PM, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I think the fella will be a take for the forseeable future, and I don't think Bruce will press for his replacement at this very moment. I'm sure if someone he values higher asked him right now to commit, he'd get him in, but I don't think the door is shut on this kid by any means. I hope he is wearing O&B soon enough 

I agree. The kid just needs to show coach he is a team player. I, too hope he will. He has so much potential and can score. 

On 7/14/2021 at 11:45 AM, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

The first two guys in that group back in 17 and 18 were pretty good. It actually seems like it’s harder to get that caliber of walk on once you become better in recruiting. 

If a kid wants to get into coaching; being on Pearl's bench for four years would be appealing even if one does not get any PT. 

Here he is in June looking really good. I think he will thrive in Pearl's system. 

11 hours ago, Rednilla said:

I'm not sure how to embed a tweet here, but Tre Donaldson, the S/PG we've been recruiting who is announcing on the same day as Cruz, tweeted that big news was coming from two of them on the same day...maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that kinda sounds like it might be a good day for us with both of them.

This pretty much means its a done deal to AU. Very NICE backcourt. Need to add stretch PF, Walker and another 2/3 and Bruce will keep the wins rolling. 

11 hours ago, Zeek said:

Bama commit but he visited during Bog Cat Weekend and asked that reporters not reveal his visit.

Would be a major flip but supposedly he's Lee Hunter's cousin, goes to Derrick Brown's old school, and his position coach is a former Auburn player. So there's a lot of connections that can't be ignored.

Again, likely a long shot but the momentum here is interesting. Some smoke slowly billowing.

Derrick went to Lanier in Buford, GA. 

1 hour ago, steeleagle said:

I think Nick Smith out of Ark has really risen on their radar and they are pushing for him more ahead of Cruz, the scuttlebut is out there.

Smith had a great Nike Peach Jam, and as a CG, Pearl and Flanigan really like his overall shooting better than Cruz. 

That is exactly the player mentioned I just could not remember his name. Most likely we will need a 2G and a 3 and in Pearl's system a big 2G could easily play the 3 so Cruz might be worth the take. 

Posters on two other sites are claiming Cruz may not be a take for Bruce; that Bruce likes another player better. Probably BS. Cruz and Tre D are announcing on the 19th. 

On 7/30/2021 at 12:50 PM, autiger88 said:

Why Mississippi State for us I would rather have LSU 🤷

MSU is a long time rival. LSU only became a rival when divisions were created. AU used to only occasionally play LSU and Ole Miss, but have always played MSU. 

13 hours ago, ValleyTiger said:

Florida: Georgia, LSU, Tennessee

Georgia: Florida, Auburn, South Carolina

Kentucky: South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State

South Carolina: Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky

Alabama: Auburn, Tennessee, LSU

Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi State

Tennessee: Vanderbilt, Alabama, Florida

Vanderbilt: Kentucky, Tennessee, Ole Miss

LSU: Florida, Alabama, Ole Miss

Mississippi State: Ole Miss, Auburn, Kentucky

Ole Miss: Vanderbilt, Mississippi State. LSU

Texas A&M: Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma

Arkansas: Missouri, Texas A&M, Texas

Missouri: Arkansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma

Oklahoma: Texas, Texas A&M, Missouri

Texas: Texas A&M, Arkansas, Oklahoma

This is pretty good. Pretty balanced. 

37 minutes ago, gravejd said:

No way if we start 4-0 do we end up 6-6. But with that said i do see 6-6 as a possibility. We went 6-4 last season but that could have just as easily been 4-6. We weren't a good team last year on either side of the ball. Kudos to the players and coaching staff for gutting out the wins they did. But no guarantees we'll get the same lucky bounces/calls. I figure you can pencil in all 3 of Miss St, Arkansas, and Ol Miss as programs that will be better than they were last season. I think we'll be better as well but they are in second year of new coaches and we are in first. 

Probably win: Georgia State, Akron, Alabama St, South Carolina
Toss Ups: Miss St, Ol Miss, Arky, Penn St., A&M

Probably lose: Bama, LSU, Georgia

I'll have anything as 6 wins or less being disappointed in the season. 7 to 9 wins and my happiness will depend on how the team is playing and improving as the season goes along. 10 and more wins and i'll fall in love with this staff like i did Gus back in 2013. I'll hope this honeymoon last longer lol. 

I'm really concerned with the offense this season. We have proven RBs but that is it. I think the offense can be good.....3rd year returning starter at QB and all of OL is back. But i'm in the boat of the OL being not that great and the QB has been inconsistent. Zero experience at WR outside of the uga transfer. Yeah things may look better with the new offense but i'll need to see it look better before i get too confident. 

On defense we are adjusted to a major change in scheme. And we have zero playmakers on the DL. I liked what i saw out of the D on Aday and i think our backend of DBs and LBs could be great if that can learn all their fits in the new scheme. But will they be good enough to carry the team if the offense struggles?? 

Gus' lack of offense had a lot to do with the struggles last season. The talent was there to win 8 or more games, Gus' gused it up as usual. 

10 hours ago, Mikey said:

Last year we had ten big regular season games and won six of them. (60%) This year we have nine big regular season games. Just a slight improvement to 67%, win the three gimme games and we are 9-3. Surely we can make that slight improvement? Anything less than 9-3 will be a step backward, statistically at least.

Depending on how pre-season camp goes, I'm thinking we could do 10-2 or better, barring a rash of injuries to key players.

I've been thinking 9 or better if the team stays healthy for the most part and 7-8 if injuries become an issue before big games. 

22 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Well, seeing as how other conversation was you blatantly stating that Roy Williams needed cheating as a crutch whilst at one of the four best programs ever, and Bruce absolutely didn’t, while at Auburn, I don’t think your definition of “anti-AU” matches reality, with all due respect 

AU had a good chance to sign 2-3 more 5 stars during Sharife’s class, and they went to UNC, the G-League and Texas. That literally doesn’t mean anything if you’re trying to state how one team SIGNS recruiting classes better than another. Memphis also recruits on the same level as us, if not better, if you value being close as the end all be all 

UK had a class that was quite literally 60 spots higher than ours last season (they had a comparable run on the transfer market, before that’s brought up). 9 spots higher the cycle before, arguably one of our 2-3 best cycles. 18 spots higher before that 

Im not here to disparage Auburn’s strides, but it’s dismissive of facts to say something like we’re recruiting on the same level as Kentucky. Maybe one day they will

We are about to have two players from last year's team go in the first round  And replaced one of them with a 5 star-SO................ Yeah we are recruiting with the likes of UK. 

5 hours ago, AuburnNTexas said:

I would bet other schools hit up Auburn as not using Centers and often playing a 4 at the position to be honest.  Pearl has never had a reputation for developing centers. I believe that is because until he got Austin Wiley he had never had a any true centers. That wouldn't stop other teams from mentioning that he had never put Centers into the NBA.  Assuming Kessler develops and goes to NBA then it will be easier for Pearl and Auburn to bring in Centers. If he can also develop Dylan Cardwell that will again help in recruiting Centers long run. I think having Kessler will help Cardwell defensively practicing against Kessler and having to work hard against Kessler to score should also help his offensive game.  

I wanted Sage but have to accept he is gone and Auburn moves on. With Kessler and a developing Cardwell we will be fine at Center next year and by his third year Cardwell might be a true center. He is is big enough, strong enough and athletic enough just has to work on his game, moving his feet on D, bodying up without fouling and develop an inside game and a mid range game. He actually did a good job of making himself available down low last year but didn't have the game to do anything when ball came to him down there. He needs a drop step and a turn around jumper. 

He is rated as the number 15 center. Past AU teams he would have been a great get, but AU has a solid shot at the top PF. Sage is a Stretch type player. He will be good eventually, but he will never be 5 star great.

22 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

??? This reads like insane coping lol. We heavily pursued transfers from hole in the walls in flyover states and had multiple recruits lower than Sage in recent classes. AU isn't even recruiting in the same level as Kentucky. He decommitted from Auburn, not us MOVING ON FROM HIM

I am flabbergasted by this post! 

We shall see. You sure like to post anti-AU posts. And we are recruiting at the same level as UK right now. There is a good chance AU signs 2-3 5 stars this year. 

2 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Uh lol 

dudes had me thinking he was leaving for Kentucky 

He is a 3 star for a reason. Solid player, but will need time to develop. UK and AU are recruiting at a higher level. 

4 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Seems like he still has a fairly quick timeline in mind 

NICE!!!! 

https://twitter.com/AuburnMBB/status/1414728604253032448?s=20